Gaining hands-on experience to develop new skill sets to use after serving time in Nebraska’s correctional facilities, incarcerated individuals at the Community Corrections Center of Lincoln begin their journey to an Electrical Apprenticeship this fall and to new career opportunities upon release.

The Community Corrections Center of Lincoln launched the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCR) Core curriculum’s 12-week program. This program educates incarcerated individuals on a variety of construction-focused topics.

Within the set curriculum, students are taught things like basic safety, communication skills and construction drawing. The students learn a variety of skills like how to properly use hand and power tools, material handling, mathematics and basic rigging.

Twelve incarcerated men are currently enrolled in the NCCER Core curriculum and are expected to complete the course on April 4th, 2019.

The students receive both classroom and hands-on experience in the variety of topics within the Core curriculum.

This curriculum is a prerequisite course to all other level-one craft and trade curriculums offered by the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Training Center.

The incarcerated individuals will receive certificates in Construction Site Safety, Introductory Craft Skills, CORE Curriculum as well as a NCCER card.

The NCCER card is unique to each student that completes the program and can be used anywhere in the United States to prove their certifications and trainings.

Once they have completed the first course, the incarcerated individuals enrolled will advance to the virtual electrical course in April at the ABC Training Center.

Using these courses, the inmates anticipate being part of the Electrical Apprenticeship Level One at the ABC Training center this fall.