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The Structured Cabling Association Inc, the professional society of structured cabling, has created a free PowerPoint presentation for schools wanting to offer training in structured cabling installation for communications and security systems. The program was created to allow schools to include cabling in their telecommunications or information technology curriculum in high school to encourage students to consider the profession.
“Teaching communications cabling needs to be included in technical programs as early as the high school level,” said Tom Collins, professor at Gateway Community & Technical College in Cincinnati, a founder of the SCA and a contributor to the curriculum. “Many schools have communications programs but lack the materials to teach a cabling course essential to the overall understanding of communications technology. Developing such a course is not easy for most instructors. The SCA, true to its nonprofit professional society outlook, created this program to distribute free to instructors to facilitate teaching cabling and particularly to encourage younger students to consider a career in cabling, where jobs currently are readily available.”
The four-part series includes some 200 PowerPoint slides keyed to the SCA textbook, “Data, Voice and Video Cabling,” published by Delmar Learning. Topics include introduction to communications cabling, introduction to structured cabling, structured wiring and wiring practices and fiber optics in structured cabling. The slides are editable, and materials can be integrated into other curriculum. With the current interest in residential cabling to support broadband connections such as fiber to the home, the material is appropriate also for many electrical training programs and apprenticeships.
The presentations may be downloaded from the SCA Web site. Access to the program is available to SCA-approved schools offering SCA certification programs and SCA-registered schools that wish to teach an introductory cabling course without the complete SCA certification curriculum.
Contact the SCA for details at 760.451.3655 or [email protected]. EC