The building is currently home to for-profit college Centura College. (Mike Platania photo)
After 16 years in Hanover County, a local trade school is preparing to plug into Midlothian.
The Richmond Electricians’ Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC) recently purchased a 23,000-square-foot building at 7914 Midlothian Turnpike, which will serve as its new home for training future electricians.
The nonprofit paid $2.4 million for the building and expects to move in next summer.
Gregg Spicer, JATC’s training director, said the group will be leaving its current facility at 11255 Air Park Road.
Spicer said the 11,000-square-foot Hanover building has served the organization well since it bought it in 2007, but they’ve run out of space.
“We had 80 to 100 apprentices for a long time, but starting in 2017, 2018, work started booming in Richmond and currently we have around 300,” he said. “We started growing and needed to find space.”
Spicer said the new building could handle over 500 students.
JATC is affiliated with both the trade group National Electrical Contractors Association and labor union International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Spicer said it receives the bulk of its funding from electrical firms that are signatories to the program and provide on-the-job training for apprentices. It also derives revenue from student tuition ($600 per semester).
Gregg Spicer
Spicer said JATC has been active in the Richmond region since the 1940s and has had a number of homes over the years, with each move being prompted by the program’s growth.
The group closed on its purchase of the Midlothian building on Oct. 12. The property was most recently assessed by the county at $1.9 million. One South Commercial’s Ken Campbell and Ann Schweitzer Riley represented JATC in the deal.
The building is currently occupied by for-profit college Centura College, which Spicer said will operate there through the end of the year. After that, the JATC will get in and kick off some minor renovations ahead of a planned August 2024 move-in.
Once operational in Midlothian, Spicer said the group will look to sell its Hanover facility. County records show JATC bought that property in 2007 for $1.3 million.
Spicer said most apprentices at the JATC complete the program in about four years and graduate with zero debt. He said apprentices start out earning over $18 per hour, and often transition straight into jobs earning over six figures.
Despite the student-friendly nature of the industry, Spicer said many in the electrician industry are forecasting a huge deficit of tradespeople nationally in the next decade.
“You have people that are retiring, and people that are just not getting into the trades. For so long the schools pushed college, and that’s a good thing if whatever you want to be in life requires you to go to college. But for so long so many go to college without knowing what they want to do,” Spicer said.
“For plumbers, electricians, HVAC (technicians) and welders, right now you hear a lot of grumbling where, pretty much, we can name our price. Because we just don’t have enough of those tradespeople.”
In addition to historic electrical theory and on-the-job training, apprentices these days are also graduating with training in new technology.
“All our apprentices now have training in electric vehicle technology and infrastructure. We stay up to date with all the changing technologies,” Spicer said. “Our industry, there’s so much to it. Even in those 4 years, it’s hard to pack everything in, especially with technology changing all the time.”
The building is currently home to for-profit college Centura College. (Mike Platania photo)
After 16 years in Hanover County, a local trade school is preparing to plug into Midlothian.
The Richmond Electricians’ Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC) recently purchased a 23,000-square-foot building at 7914 Midlothian Turnpike, which will serve as its new home for training future electricians.
The nonprofit paid $2.4 million for the building and expects to move in next summer.
Gregg Spicer, JATC’s training director, said the group will be leaving its current facility at 11255 Air Park Road.
Spicer said the 11,000-square-foot Hanover building has served the organization well since it bought it in 2007, but they’ve run out of space.
“We had 80 to 100 apprentices for a long time, but starting in 2017, 2018, work started booming in Richmond and currently we have around 300,” he said. “We started growing and needed to find space.”
Spicer said the new building could handle over 500 students.
JATC is affiliated with both the trade group National Electrical Contractors Association and labor union International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Spicer said it receives the bulk of its funding from electrical firms that are signatories to the program and provide on-the-job training for apprentices. It also derives revenue from student tuition ($600 per semester).
Gregg Spicer
Spicer said JATC has been active in the Richmond region since the 1940s and has had a number of homes over the years, with each move being prompted by the program’s growth.
The group closed on its purchase of the Midlothian building on Oct. 12. The property was most recently assessed by the county at $1.9 million. One South Commercial’s Ken Campbell and Ann Schweitzer Riley represented JATC in the deal.
The building is currently occupied by for-profit college Centura College, which Spicer said will operate there through the end of the year. After that, the JATC will get in and kick off some minor renovations ahead of a planned August 2024 move-in.
Once operational in Midlothian, Spicer said the group will look to sell its Hanover facility. County records show JATC bought that property in 2007 for $1.3 million.
Spicer said most apprentices at the JATC complete the program in about four years and graduate with zero debt. He said apprentices start out earning over $18 per hour, and often transition straight into jobs earning over six figures.
Despite the student-friendly nature of the industry, Spicer said many in the electrician industry are forecasting a huge deficit of tradespeople nationally in the next decade.
“You have people that are retiring, and people that are just not getting into the trades. For so long the schools pushed college, and that’s a good thing if whatever you want to be in life requires you to go to college. But for so long so many go to college without knowing what they want to do,” Spicer said.
“For plumbers, electricians, HVAC (technicians) and welders, right now you hear a lot of grumbling where, pretty much, we can name our price. Because we just don’t have enough of those tradespeople.”
In addition to historic electrical theory and on-the-job training, apprentices these days are also graduating with training in new technology.
“All our apprentices now have training in electric vehicle technology and infrastructure. We stay up to date with all the changing technologies,” Spicer said. “Our industry, there’s so much to it. Even in those 4 years, it’s hard to pack everything in, especially with technology changing all the time.”
Fantastic. I had never heard about this organization. I’d love to see some movement in VA towards a building arts trade college program like the American College of Building Arts in Charleston, SC.
Its been around since the end of the Second World War!
My father attended one of the first union apprenticeship programs in the country which was conducted in Chicago for eight week sessions after WW2. When he returned to Norfolk, he started a similar program for his union conducting classes in the evenings after work. The IBEW/NECA apprenticeship program is the strongest of its kind today. The non-union home builders HBAs got into the business of apprenticeship classes in the late 70’s, providing evening classes in electrical,HVAC and carpentry. I initiated and directed the one in Fairfax for the NVBIA in conjunction with the Fairfax Adult Education program, but HBAR in… Read more »
This is fantastic. Compare the $600 tuition per semester to the per-semester price of higher education. How many of those graduates with their $200K in debt are making six figures? Time for college tuition to return to earth or become obsolete.
I thought a White Castle was coming to town for a split second.
Always heard good things about the school, but a little lost as Centura College is a trade school too that has electrical, welding, wind turbine, and HVAC programs.
Is Centura closing?