Questions to Ask Electrician Training Schools<\/strong><\/h3>\nWhen you have decided to obtain a diploma, certificate or degree, you can begin to narrow down your training options. Because there are numerous electrician tech and trade schools in the Athens GA area, it’s imperative to have a checklist of qualifications that each school must satisfy. The first 2 that we discussed were location and the cost of tuition. If you are interested in earning an degree online, then that needs to be a feature that your final school offers. And while all three qualifiers may be important when making your selection, there are additional variables that must be considered also. Below is a checklist of those added qualifiers that you will need to research prior to choosing an electrical trade school.<\/p>\n
Accreditation. <\/strong>A large number of electrician technical programs have attained either a regional or a national accreditation. They may attain Institutional Accreditation, which involves the school’s programs overall, or Programmatic Accreditation, which relates to an individual program, for example electrical technology. Verify that the Athens GA school is accredited by a U.S. Department of Education recognized accrediting agency, for instance the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. In addition to helping ensure that you get a quality education, it can help in obtaining financial assistance or student loans, which are often unavailable for non-accredited programs. Also, some states require that the electrician training program be accredited for it to qualify for licensing.<\/p>\nHigh Completion and Placement Rates. <\/strong>Ask the electrician training programs you are considering what their completion rates are. The completion rate is the portion or percentage of students who enroll in and complete the program. A low completion rate may indicate that students were unhappy with the course and quit. It might also mean that the instructors were not qualified to instruct the students. It’s also important that the schools have higher job placement rates. Older and\/or more reputable schools may have a broader list of alumni, which may mean more contacts for the school to use for their apprenticeship and job placement programs. A high job placement rate will not only validate that the school has an excellent reputation within the field, but also that it has the network of contacts to assist Athens GA graduates secure apprenticeships or employment.<\/p>\nApprenticeship Programs. <\/strong>Many electrician vocational programs are taught along with an internship or an apprenticeship program. Those participating trade and technical schools will help place you in an apprenticeship program inside their network of electrician businesses or trade unions. Find out if the schools you are reviewing have referring relationships with Athens GA area electricians or electrical companies. An apprenticeship not only offers a rewarding experience by supplying hands-on training, but it also provides employment opportunities and helps to build relationships in the local electrician professional community.<\/p>\nModern Facilities. <\/strong>Confirm that the campus facilities and the equipment that you will be trained on are state-of-the-art and what you will be working with in the field. If you are already in an internship or an apprenticeship, talk to the electrical technician you are working under concerning what you should be looking for. Otherwise, ask a local Athens GA electrical contractor if they can give you some tips. Also bear in mind that unless you can move, the school needs to be within driving distance of your Athens residence. Remember that if you decide to enroll in an out-of-state school, in addition to moving costs there might be higher tuition charges compared to in-state residents.<\/p>\nSmaller Classes. <\/strong>It’s desirable that you receive as much personalized instruction as possible, which can be difficult in larger classes. Ask if you can sit in on a few of the classes so that you can see how large they are and witness first hand the interaction between students and teachers. Speak to some of the students and get their opinions concerning class sizes and instruction. Last, speak to some of the instructors and learn what their level of experience is and what certifications or degrees they have earned.<\/p>\nFlexible Scheduling. <\/strong>Confirm that the class schedules for the programs you are assessing are flexible enough to meet your needs. If you are only able to attend classes at night or on weekends near Athens GA, confirm that the programs you are reviewing provide those options. If you can only attend on a part-time basis, make certain that the school you select allows part-time enrollment. Finally, check out what the policy is to make-up classes should you miss any because of work, sickness or family emergencies.<\/p>\nConsidering Attending an Electrician School near Athens GA?<\/h3>\n
Following is a little bit of background information about the Athens GA area.<\/p>\n
Athens, Georgia<\/h3>
Athens (formally known as Athens-Clarke County) is a consolidated city\u2013county and American college town in the U.S. state of Georgia, about 60 miles northeast from Downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship university and a Tier I research institution, is located in Athens and contributed to its initial growth. In 1991, after a vote the preceding year, the original city abandoned its charter to form a unified government with Clarke County, referred to jointly as Athens-Clarke County.[2] As of the 2010 census, the consolidated city-county (including all of Athens-Clarke County except Winterville and a portion of Bogart) had a total population of 115,452; all of Clarke County had a population of 116,714.[3] Athens is the sixth-largest city in Georgia, and the principal city of the Athens-Clarke County, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area,[4] which had a population of 192,541 as of the 2010 census and is a part of the larger Atlanta Metropolitan area.[5] Athens-Clarke County has the smallest geographical area of a county in Georgia.[citation needed]<\/p>
The city is dominated by a pervasive student culture and music scene centered on Downtown Athens adjacent to the University of Georgia campus.[6] Major music acts associated with Athens include numerous alternative rock bands such as R.E.M., the B-52's, Widespread Panic, and the Indigo Girls.<\/p>
In the late 18th century, a trading settlement on the banks of the Oconee River called Cedar Shoals stood where Athens is located today. On January 27, 1785, the Georgia General Assembly granted a charter by Abraham Baldwin for the University of Georgia as the first state-supported university. Sixteen years later, in 1801, a committee from the university's board of trustees selected a site for the university on a hill above Cedar Shoals, in what was then Jackson County. On July 25, John Milledge, one of the trustees and later governor of Georgia, bought 633 acres (256\u00a0ha) from Daniel Easley and donated it to the university. Milledge named the surrounding area Athens after the city that was home to the Platonic Academy of Plato and Aristotle in Greece.[7]<\/p><\/div>\n