Testimonial Video

Empowering the Next Generation of Electrical Workers at Selcat

Selcat, a program created by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), is dedicated to training apprentices and journeymen across the Southeast. By integrating CM Labs simulators into their curriculum, Selcat provides a safe, lifelike training experience that builds confidence, enhances safety, and prepares participants for careers as linemen, URD techs, and future industry leaders. This video highlights how Selcat’s innovative approach is shaping the future of workforce development in the electrical industry.

"Working with CM Labs, we trust in them and we believe in their presence here and their training for us."

Selcat

Danial “Danny” Hadid

Executive Director

Video Transcript

Selcat is a brainchild of the IBEW, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the NECA, which is the National Electrical Contractors Association. We are one of nine programs in the NECA IBEW family. We cover the Southeast, and we want to train our apprentices, we want to train our journeymen on the latest and the greatest.

The CM Labs machines exposes them to the operation, so when we take them out into the field, they're more comfortable. It's not the first time I'm putting them in that seat. The ability to train multiple people at the same time, we needed something of mass scale. These machines have given us that, they've given us the ability to grade students, to watch students, to be able to keep up with their intervals of training. They are giving us the opportunity to do more with less. On any given moment, we have an average of let's say around 900 apprentices in various steps of their apprenticeship. We graduate around a hundred to 150 a year as linemen, and subtext, and URD techs. And, in order for the industry to continue to have the right level, and knowledge, and skill, what best than to have an apprenticeship, where collectively we can train our future leaders that will one day become our foremans, our general foremans, our superintendents.

Here at Selcat, I teach the ECA training certification course. In that course, they're not allowed to go out and shadow the course during their practicals. So what the simulators have done for me is that the digger derrick simulation for the simulators is actually set up now with the ECA training course, so they're actually able to shadow it on the CM Labs simulators for training purposes. So they actually get to walk through the class and go through the course that they're actually going to take out in the field. I've actually used these a little bit on teaching safety as well. It's a lot easier to teach in a controlled environment where you don't have the noise of the machine, and things like that, and really be able to explain it to them in ways they understand without all that extra noise, and background.

I'm part of the Skill Bridge program that Selcat offers, kind of like helmet to hardhats. When people are separating from the military, they get them into an alternate career path, that way in a lot of people don't get out of the military without a job, don't have a career path, can't support their family. It was one of the things Selcat offered, so that’s why I'm here. I think it's a good icebreaker for people that have never handled heavy equipment, that way they don't get out there and get someone else hurt or get themselves hurt. This is something that's going to help me a lot. I don't really want to get an excavator or something that weighs 15, 20 thousand pounds and start swinging that arm around. Next thing you know, I'm hitting someone's truck or the side of a building or even digging up power lines. I feel like the movements are really lifelike, right? So it's one of the things, again, like if I'm picking up a pole with a digger derrick, as I'm picking up the pole, the seat will shift, right? Because the weight shifts on the back of the truck, and it's one of the things you feel. You feel when your outriggers go down. So it feels like movement wise, I think it's as close as they're really going to get.

Working with CM Labs, we trust in them and we believe in their presence here and their training for us. They're giving us the opportunity to not run and get diesel every day. You know, less mechanical failures on our equipment. Because remember, no one can get hurt on these machines. It allows us the opportunity to have multiple people training at the same time with one instructor in the room, training them, rather than if we're out in equipment in the field, somebody's outside watching every move that you make and they cannot watch more than one person. It's got to be one-on-one training. I see our relationship with CM Labs evolve on many fronts. We're still learning what to do with them. We're still adding to them. I will have to say that for what we are doing here, I believe that it is paying for itself.