BNAP Coordinator Mark Wertz shared updates to training, including EPRI and the learning management system. The LMS is continually being updated and is currently on version 3.0. BNAP added new training materials including financial literacy, operating a forklift, AutoCAD, aerial platform operation and clean energy. BNAP is also condensing existing lessons and adding electives.

“My office was able to create a class for AutoCAD/Revit,” Wertz said, noting it will be added to the curriculum next year. “We want to make sure it’s perfect and not rush something through.”

EPRI—Electric Power Research Institute—has multiple advanced training modules BNAP has adopted. Members who pass EPRI testing are more competitive in the field, allowing locals to capture more work, as experienced at Local 85 (Toledo, Ohio). BM-ST Tim Timmons offered EPRI training in “Operate an Aerial Platform” and captured 20 extra jobs the local wouldn’t have gotten without it.

Wertz said members do this training on their own time and aren’t paid for it, but there’s value in it for both contractors and members.

“We don’t want people in the field that aren’t trained enough,” he said.

Currently BNAP is teaching EPRI classes in Industrial Rigging and Signaling, Install and Torque Fasteners, Operate a Forklift and Operate an Aerial Platform. By next year Wertz hopes to add a confined space module.

“No other craft has taken this confined space module,” he said.

Wertz emphasized BNAP’s commitment to recruiting, noting competitions such as SkillsUSA and the FFA are fertile ground for recruiting young men and women into the union straight from high school.