W. M. Keck Observatory, in collaboration with Hawaii Community College, has announced a new apprenticeship program for kamaaina students pursuing a career as licensed electricians.
The three-year pilot program provides highly specialized technical training and commercial work experience to students enrolled in Hawaii Community College’s Electrical Installation and Maintenance Technology program, or EIMT.
“Living in Hawaii, on the Big Island especially, we don’t have a lot of opportunities to gain electrical experience on commercial industrial installations,” Keck Observatory lead electrician/infrastructure technician and Hawaii Community College EIMT alumnus Jerez Tehero of Hilo said in a press release.
“When I was working my way up the trade, I struggled to figure out how to get my requisite licensing hours done,” Tehero said. “Fortunately, I was able to earn my commercial industrial hours working for the Hawaii County Traffic Division. But not everyone has that opportunity, so I wanted to create a career pathway designed to give students an opportunity they may not otherwise get.”
Hilo native Evan Ida, a Hilo High School alum, is the very first Hawaii Community College electrician student selected via an application process. He began the apprenticeship in July 2022 and will shadow Tehero, a supervising electrician, for about 600 hours until he graduates in May 2023 to develop a firm understanding of commercial and industrial electrical automation systems.
Those hours will count toward the required 10,000 electrical work hours needed to become a licensed journeyman electrician in Hawaii, part of which includes commercial and industrial hours that are difficult to fulfill with limited companies that perform this type of work on Hawaii Island.
“The work experience at Keck Observatory is amazing,” Ida said in the press release. “I spent the summer working with a residential electrical company in Hilo, and that was great. I learned a lot. What I’ve been learning at Keck allows me to level up — it’s a whole different ballgame.”
With safety a foremost priority, Ida received fall prevention and arc flash safety training before beginning on-site work at Keck Observatory’s telescope facility on Maunakea. Once he completes the required hours, Ida will be eligible for the program’s tuition reimbursement to cover his second year in the EIMT program.
For more information, or to apply for the program, visit https://hawaii.hawaii.edu/eimt.