In 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-related occupations would expand 10.5% by 2030. Along those lines, the National Science Teaching Association insists that the United States must have a STEM-literate workforce to compete globally.

The IBEW 134/NECA Technical Institute (IN-Tech) is on top of these trends, fully aware that the electrical industry needs STEM-­literate employees. Since 2018, IN-Tech has partnered with Northwestern University to host an annual STEM competition for Chicago-­area high school students.

St. Rita Catholic High School students participate in IN-Tech’s STEM competition, an event established through a partnership with Powering Chicago and Northwestern University.

The competition continues to gain popularity, signaling that educators are hungry for opportunities to introduce students to STEM-based careers. The event also offers another avenue for reaching prospective apprentices.

“Our goal was to help students experience the connection between the STEM skills learned in the classroom and how those skills apply to the electrical industry,” said Elbert Walters III, director of Powering Chicago, which brings together IBEW 134 electricians and the Electrical Contractors’ Association of City of Chicago. “Besides educating students, we also wanted teachers and administrators to appreciate the electrical industry as a STEM field.”

Growing that appreciation among educators involves changing old assumptions. 

“Construction is mistakenly considered a ‘less than’ industry, so instead of aiming for careers in it, the best and brightest students are encouraged to aim for college only,” Walters said. “But technology is the foundation of our industry, and it involves science, technology, engineering and math.”

Walters emphasized the need for wider audiences to realize the electrical field is becoming more complex and science-based.

“Highly skilled workers are needed with more sophisticated activities taking place on the grid,” he said. “You have the arrival of solar power and wind generation, EVs, sensitive computer equipment and crucial data centers. These are all new and highly technical aspects of our world.”

For several teens coming of age in this new world, the STEM competition that took place at IN-Tech headquarters in Alsip, Ill., last September made a lasting impression.

“It was probably the high point of the year,” said Angelo Valentine, a junior at Oak Forest High School, in Oak Forest, Ill.

Oak Forest High School students Gavin Cahill, Juan Silang, Angel Valentine and Matthew Angone, in their principles of engineering class

For the competition, he and three other students from his principles of engineering class designed a manufacturing plant and calculated its power needs and potential solar power and wind generating capacities.

“I did a lot of the paperwork and helped with the planning,” Valentine said. “This taught me what electricians go through before they ever pick up a tool.”

“We keyed into scenarios of what electricians do, what contractors do and what shops in the field do,” said Gene Kent, IN-Tech director. “We wanted students to experience the industry, so we asked them to design a chip-manufacturing facility, keeping in mind President Biden’s initiative to invest in chip manufacturing.”

Students were provided power consumption info and calculations for energy offsets, Kent said. “We gave a hard engineering lesson, but also gave them the opportunity to be inventive with their designs.”

Valentine hopes to study architecture or nuclear engineering, so he appreciated the chance to collaborate with students and compete against other high school teams. He said he also enjoyed the timed cage climbing exercise and touring IN-Tech’s training facility while scavenging for materials and information related to the competition.

Gavin Cahill, a senior at Oak Forest, also appreciated the physical aspects of the competition, including moving conduit and driving a lift truck in IN-Tech’s parking lot.

“I’m open to a career in the trades,” Cahill said, who was considering a work program the high school has negotiated with Panduit Corp., located in nearby Tinley Park.

Besides Cahill and Valentine, 34 students from Bremen High School District 228 participated in IN-Tech’s third STEM competition. Overall, 140 students turned out from 14 Chicago­-area schools.

“We’re seeing steady growth,” Kent said. “Participation picked back up in 2021, even after taking a year off for the pandemic.”

One reason for the quick comeback may be that the competition answered a call for teachers and administrators at Illinois high schools to award career pathway endorsements to their students.

District 228 is currently building a manufacturing and engineering pathway endorsement program for students, as required by the Illinois State Board of Education, said April Nykaza, the district's career and technical education district supervisor. Students earn endorsements by completing an individualized learning plan and career-focused instructional sequence while taking advantage of professional learning opportunities.

“The STEM event fit the bill as one of two team-based challenges students needed to complete,” Nykaza said.

“In 2021, we brought four students. This year, we had 12,” said Greg Slade, who teaches principles of engineering at Oak Forest. “The competition also fit the agenda of Project Lead the Way.”

Project Lead the Way also figures heavily into the school’s curriculum. The national nonprofit empowers students to develop in-demand, transportable skills by exploring real-world challenges in computer science, engineering and biomedical science.

Brian Wichert, IT director, teacher and coach at St. Laurence High School in Burbank, Ill., also appreciated sending juniors and seniors from his design technology and vertical design engineering classes to the STEM competition for a second year.

“It’s really about critical thinking and more real-world application,” he said “They gave scenarios, and it wasn’t easy to find the answers, but the kids liked being challenged.”

During a STEM competition, St. Laurence senior Isabel Raftery tries to move a metal hoop around copper tubing without touching it and setting off a bell. The interactive exhibit enabled students to score points and test their steadiness of hand. 

Anthony Gonzalez, a senior at St. Laurence, plans to study civil engineering or electrical engineering. 

“This was a wake-up call for me,” he said. “We saw the CAD designs, the ruler with the measurement scale. We took on a number of different challenges.”

Another St. Laurence senior, William Passarelli, wants to study mechanical engineering. 

“We definitely got the sense of a real-world application, having to balance physical activity with mental calculations. Even if we aren’t going to be electricians or electrical engineers, we were able to see that many parts of engineering all have the same roots.” —William Passarelli, St. Laurence High School

“We definitely got the sense of a real-world application, having to balance physical activity with mental calculations,” he said. “Even if we aren’t going to be electricians or electrical engineers, we were able to see that many parts of engineering all have the same roots.”

For those with their sights set on college, Walters wants high school educators to know that an apprenticeship with IBEW 134 can lead to additional higher education.

“After going through the apprenticeship program, you’re only a couple of class credits away from an associate’s degree,” Walters said. “And because the industry has excelled, we can support you to go on to become educated for project management.”

For doing this, IBEW 134 has a tuition reimbursement agreement with the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Walters sees advantages for the industry in cultivating a variety of community partners. He also insists they can benefit.

“For Northwestern, IN-Tech’s STEM competition offers not so much the means to attract students to Northwestern University, but more to promote awareness of STEM, alternative continuing education options and Powering Chicago and Northwestern’s dedication to giving back to the community,” said Sean Wollenberg, senior manager of business development for Northwestern.

“The first part of this effort has been to educate teachers and students on the support that’s out there for STEM careers and the electrical industry as a whole,” he said.

As a show of that support, Northwestern has provided students with chances to win cash prizes and Northwestern football game tickets.

The university’s business development department assisted Powering Chicago and IN-Tech in building mailing lists of teachers and students. The department also created videos, photos and promotional materials to encourage participation.

High school finalists were invited for a STEM Day at Northwestern where they could attend a STEM class taught by a Northwestern professor before a game played against Miami University.

The class demonstrated rudimentary STEM concepts, such as using math to fit multiple items into a small space, working with liquids and gases to shrink items and using a potato as a battery to power a light bulb.

“We haven’t yet been moved farther down the line to getting students through as journeymen, then to project managers and electrical engineers, but that’s what’s been talked about,” Wollenberg said.

On a smaller scale, Alaska PowerCom Supply, which sells electrical supplies to utility companies and electrical contractors in Fairbanks, Alaska, is also introducing high school students to the electrical field.

Alaska PowerCom general manager Candy Jo Bracken serves as treasurer for the local parent-teacher association and as a national PTA board member. Working with IBEW 1547, she set up a program to pay students from Lathrop High School $14 an hour to work part-time during the summer and school year.

Ian Bracken and his mother, Candy Jo Bracken, general manager of Alaska PowerCom, who worked with IBEW 1547 to establish an employment program for high school students

“The idea was to give teens employment in our warehouse and to give them the chance to interact with linemen and wiremen while getting to know about products used in the trade,” she said.

Six teens worked at the supply warehouse last summer, and four worked there at the start of the school year.

“We’re an IBEW company, which means the teens are considered material handlers. Once they turn 18, they can work full-time and become IBEW-dues-paying members,” Bracken said.

Bracken’s son, Ian, continues on part-time in the program while working toward a degree in elementary education.

“This helps me get through college with a paycheck,” he said, “but I know I can have a future in this industry if I decide to change my mind because I already understand more about what it means to be an electrician.”

Image Credits: St. Rita Catholic High School / Susan Degrane / Alaska PowerCom / Shutterstock / tuulijumala/ stock.adobe.com / MetinSeven / Powering Chicago