Speaker 1: Welcome to the Master of the NEC podcast, the ultimate
destination for anyone passionate about the electrical trade. Whether you're
a season electrician and eager apprentice, or just someone who
wants to dive deep into the world of electrical work,
You've come to the right place.
Speaker 2: Join your host, Paul.
Speaker 1: Abernavi, a true authority in the industry with over thirty
eight years of trade experience, as he electrifies your mind
within depth discussions, expertips, and valuable insights that will keep
you ahead of the curve. Each episode, Paul will illuminate
the complexities of the trade, decode the national electrical code,
and share the latest industry trends, all while empowering you
to take your electrical career to the next level. So
gar up, plug in, and get ready to supercharge your
knowledge because with the Master of the Neez podcast, the
power is in your hands.
Speaker 2: Now get ready. Here is your host, Paul Abernavi.
Speaker 3: Up.
Speaker 2: What up? Everybody? Welcome to another episode of Master the NEC.
Speaker 3: It's great to be here, great to give you a podcast.
If you haven't listened to our podcast before, or you
just kind of getting into the podcast thing. I love podcasts.
Probably the number one thing that I love to do
is podcasts. You've heard me say this, if you've listened
to my shows before or seen me over on the
Coffee Hour, or if you've been in any of our programs.
If you google me Paul Abernathy NEC or Paul Abernathy
Electrical Guru or whatever you do to find me, you
will see that I consistently talk about my love for
podcasting and being able to deliver a message mentally and
paint that picture, whether it's a code application in the
field HR development, marketing, all those type of things. When
it comes to the electrical industry, I do my best
to do that. So I've been consistent on that. We
have over a thousand episodes. Believe it or not, Guys,
even going back years ago, which many of the podcast
episodes are still very relevant.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's not.
Speaker 3: It's kind of it's not a time capsule thing where
it's just you know, if you've listened to it and
it was a five years ago, that it's not germane today.
Most of the stuff I talk about unless it's code change,
you know, national electrical code changes. Other than that, it's
pretty much universal. I mean, you can listen to a
show that is that was done years ago, and it's
going to be relevant to today. And so one of
the other things that I've been consistent on for years
is the fact that we just don't have enough electricians.
And there's there's a difference in my mind between a
a good electrician and a great electrician. And I've spent
a career trying to create great electricians. You know, I
can teach anybody to turn a wrench us out of clients.
I could teach anybody to to make up a three
way single poll.
Speaker 2: I can do that. That's not brain surgery. I can
teach somebody to boreholes, use nail plates when necessary, secure
and support cables in accordance with the National Electrical Code.
Not brain surgery.
Speaker 3: Okay, Now, when it comes to the physical part of
you know, putting your hands on it, that just takes time.
You have to put in the hours. Once you get
those hours, now you're going to go to the other
side of the career of being an electrician. Uh. And
this is what kind of separates the good electricians who
are very good. I mean they can go out and
they do the task at hand. I can send somebody
out to do something and they get it done. And
you can work for somebody and they give you a
task and you can go out and get it done.
Speaker 2: But the difference, in.
Speaker 3: My mind, and it's something that I've been preaching for years,
the difference between a good electrician and what I consider
a great electrician is an electrician that uses both sides
of their brain. The physical part, they learn it, they
get proficient in it, they can do it very nice
and neat and that type of thing. But then there's
that mental part. And it's not just what you've heard
me say things about just learning the NEEC. It's a
whole ball of learning how to market, how to do
human resources, how to expand your knowledge with the National
Electrical Code, and realize that everything that you do right,
everything that you do with your hands, and what you've learned,
whether you went to vocational school, whether you apprenticeship program,
whatever it is, the things that you learned you start
locking in your brain.
Speaker 2: That's the physical part.
Speaker 3: And there are aspects that you learn, like securing and
supporting non metallic sheet cable right every four and a
half feet. All those things you learn, but that's repetition, right,
that's just muscle memory. You do it over and over
and over again, you get proficient at it, and that
makes you a good electrician.
Speaker 2: You know that there's nothing wrong with good electricians. We
need them. But then there's this element where.
Speaker 3: You have to you say, okay, am I okay with
just being a good electrician, and again you might be
happy with that, and then there's this this scenario where
a vast majority of people will say, you know, I'm
not good with that. I want to make sure that
I know that even in my mind and I project
this image I am better than the guy next door.
I am better than the electrician down the street. You
need to hire me because I am better. And it's
not cockiness. It is an element of you're only on
this earth a short amount of time. We try to
absorb as much knowledge as we can because the more
knowledge you have, the easier the work is.
Speaker 2: I mean, let's face it.
Speaker 3: You know, if you become knowledgeable, very knowledgeable in something,
then the job becomes just flat out easier. And that
doesn't mean the labors easier. Maybe you work smarter than harder,
but at the end of the day, it becomes easier
the more knowledgeable you get. And when it comes to
understanding the National Electrical Code. It's critical and I'm not
just talking about understanding it for like exam prep.
Speaker 2: That's great.
Speaker 3: And again we as many of you know, I create
courses that are designed with a systematic approach to teach
you the NEC. Okay, I'm not reinventing the wheel. It
is a fast track system. Okay, So that helps you
get your license. But the real part about learning and
retaining is what you do after licensure. What is your goal?
Where are you trying to be in your career? And
that is what spawned me all the way back in
twenty seventeen to come up with what's called the Certified
Master Electrical Code Professional Program. So it is trademarked the
whole phrase as well as the acronym cm ECP, and
it's for specific, exclusive use for those that have gone
from being a good electrician to a great electrician. And
you know, and people say, well, good being this guy
installs it neater than this guy.
Speaker 2: Well, neatness is in the eye of the beholder. Okay.
Speaker 3: So most electricians that go through life, unless you're a hack,
and again, you know who you are if you go
through life faking it to make it, and you know
then that's hard because you're going to have to learn
those skills and it's going to be a challenge for
you to kick your game up or step up to
the next level. Okay, unless you dedicate and focus to it. Generally,
good electricians or electricians are out there working day in
and day out. They're working their ass off to get
to get better, to step up their game, to provide
more for their family, to get more acknowledgment of their
I mean, let's face it, you could say you don't,
but when you're on a job, you know that you want.
Speaker 2: Acknowledgment for how good you are.
Speaker 3: Don't lie, don't cheat yourself, don't fake and say I
don't care, because you do. And the reason I say
this is because the moment that you do something and
you don't get the boss or somebody else say the
great job, you're like, they don't care what I do,
they don't care about I'm here. That's an example of
where you don't feel you're appreciated. So you know, through
the years, one of those goals was to say, okay,
one electrical trade is so important to the infrastructure of
what we do in a day in and day out
basis right, and you might have heard me on a
podcast talk about the future of electricians, and even the
Bureau of Labor Statistics said it's going to be about
eleven percent growth. Eighty some thousand electricians are going to
be needed. And I say that's incorrect because if you
look at more people that are closer, even CEOs of
major companies UH putting out there saying, you know what,
we're going to need. An example of this was CEOs
that put this stuff out there for the AI industry.
We're going to need at least five hundred thousands electricians
in the next ten years. It's crazy because they understand
that AI, artificial intelligence is not going to replace electricians.
Speaker 2: It's not going to replace plumbers, mechanical HVAC. It's not.
Speaker 3: So they understand that, you know, we're still going to
need people to bring power to these buildings.
Speaker 2: We understand they're going to have to maintain this equipt.
Speaker 3: They understand that a lot of dwellings and residential peoples,
you know, different subdivisions. They understand Corporate America Corporate, they're
constantly going to need to be upgrading their power because
they're gonna want these these new technologies that are very
power hungry. I mean, let's face it, we spent so
much time in the last ten years trying to talk
about energy conservation, and I get it, it's important things
save for the next generation. I'm not discounting conservation and
being smart and how we use our energy.
Speaker 2: But let's face it.
Speaker 3: It is the direct opposite of trying to be green
and save the planet. Yet we want to We're starved
for technology. Everybody's going around with the phone, everybody's got laptops, desktops, computers,
they work. You know, so as much as you want
to say, it's just like a politician saying we need
to stop the carbon footprint, and then the next day
they're on a private jet going to some venue somewhere.
It's total counterproductive to what their mission, what their statement was.
Let's get it. We can call it hypocrisy. All we
want it is the fact. Its reality, right, And you know,
we're trying to save as much energy as we can.
I mean, we're again LEDs, We're trying to be efficient
with equipment and things like that, but at the end
of the day, the technology is moving so fast and
it's so power hungry to do so much processing that
we're going to have to have capacity changes. So the
transformers that are at your in your neighborhood aren't going
to handle the ev explosions that people want to do,
or the or the new technologies that come out, or
the data hungry type of artificial intelligence that's going to
come rapidly over the next ten years. So who's going
to do this, Who's going to provide this infrastructure to
see Electrician.
Speaker 2: It's it's only one only person that can do it.
Speaker 3: So my effort in this industry, and it's been something
that it's been a passion of mine and I started
it back in twenty seventeen, was to create the CMECP program.
Now this is not an advertisement for the CMACP program. First,
let me get that out of the way. It is
me explaining the vision that I had when I helped
create it, or when I started the program. Many people
remember that there is a company called Eaton Cutler Hammer,
and years ago I was instrumental in them creating what's
called the ecc IN program. And I would go around
the country with a gentleman named Schmolsky. Andrew Smolsky, who
has since left the corporation, and went somewhere else, but
he was instrumental in helping get this thing started and
we were able to grow a the ECCN program to
get eaten contractors into this certification and then train them
on the eating products. Okay, that was important because it
was so vital that the industry understood their products better.
And then there's no better way than to certify installers
to make sure that they understand all the nuances on
how these products are to be installed. So we create
that concept, so, you know, go a couple of years
down the road, I said, you know what when it
comes to that concept in my mind of good versus
great electricians who have the skills with their hands, but
are now willing to take that next step, which is
jumping into the mental aspect of the industry, and that
is to learn the National Electrical Code.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: And what I see all over different social medias that
people make comments about it is I don't need to
learn the code.
Speaker 2: The codebooks right there.
Speaker 3: Well, the fact of the matter is I can tell
you that I spend tons of time and y'all know this,
those that follow me, I spend an awful lot of
time on social media pointing out the fact that people
promote themselves as being good electricians, but then the pictures
and the things that they say and the comments they
make say otherwise, right, they're not as good as they say.
So back in twenty seventeen, I said, I said, okay,
so what is the mission?
Speaker 2: What do I want to do?
Speaker 3: And then everybody said when I came up with the
CMECP program, we started setting out the protocols, we set
the groundwork, having the volunteers that came forward to help
us get the program started, and then we built on
their back and they were more or less the advisory board,
and then we started getting actual cmmecps.
Speaker 2: It would go through the program. What was the.
Speaker 3: Reason for that? Well, one, for me, it was what
does a master electrician really have? Now, again, it's not
for everybody. Some people are just into making the money.
They don't want to grow theirself, they don't want to
have that competitive edge.
Speaker 2: They just don't care. That's fine. I'm not dissing any
of those people.
Speaker 3: But there is a collection of individuals out there that say,
you know what, I want to know why I do it,
not just because I do it, I want to know why.
And that was the concept of the CMECP program is
to take good electricians, make them great electricians by teaching
them the National Electrical Code or at the minimum validating
what they know. Because they are master electricians. They've already
qualified as master electricians. So all we're doing is building
on that knowledge base. And that's what the CMECP program
is going to do.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Since its inception in twenty seventeen, we have not charged
a renewal for any CMECP. So for the that say
it was a money gram, it's not. I haven't charged renewals.
We haven't put a renewal in effect. That's on the
table here in August for my review board to look
at for twenty twenty six to initiate a renewal in
some qualification requirements saying that you have to meet certain
annual or bi annual or every two years qualifications. That's
all on the table. But since its inception and here
we are now we're in twenty twenty five, Okay, so.
Speaker 2: That is quite a few years ago.
Speaker 3: Rolling in on a a couple of years, it'll be
a decade, and so the fact that we have not
charged any renewals is amazing. Secondly, one thing to remember
about the CBCP program that just out answer this question
that people ask when they say it's a money grab.
If it was a money grab, then we would let
anybody in that's a master electrician. We would let anybody
just in the program. Right, There's many programs out there
that are that are not like ours because we focus
on a specific criteria. But there are some other stuff
out there that basically you pay the fee, you take
a test, and you're in.
Speaker 2: Ours is not like that. So the the failure rate
is extremely high.
Speaker 3: Now, a lot of people say, Paul and some other
cbcps have said, Paul, why do you say it that way?
Because it scares people away. You know what, I if
you're a master electrician and you're trying to take your
game to the next level, you don't want to just
pay some money to get a a a worthless certification
that means nothing. You need to earn it, and so
you should expect things to be pretty tough. Really, I
mean I would think that that in doing so, now
tough is relevant. Okay, so it is just the NEC.
I think what's tough about our program is that at
this point, it's the evolution of it has gotten it
down to where it's a four month program, and I
think the biggest failure And again people ask, what's the
failure rate?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know the numbers. I probably should have
looked at the numbers before. But let's just.
Speaker 3: Say in a year's time, only about two people make
it through the CMBCP program. And you're saying, well, that's
okay if only two people applied. No, we get well
near one hundred people that apply a year, and the
reason they don't make it through it is either they
run out of time, or they fail the program, or
they fail the units. In the units, they don't maintain
eighty percent and they get multiple shots at it and
they just you know, we don't. We don't give second
chances because that would that would screw up the integrity
of the program.
Speaker 2: And very rarely do we we have zero.
Speaker 3: That that fail out of the program once they make
it to the last stage, which is at the essay stage. Now,
in the early part, when we started this program, it
wasn't an essay. It was a five on one and
I was the moderator, but I did not ask any
of the questions. And we have five of our advisory
board members from the CECP program who either were earned
their program or they were granted it based on the
acknowledgment through our boarder directors of their years of commitment
to the industry and validated and they were nominated. And
early on those folks were nominated by me because I
worked with them. I knew who they are, I knew
their commitment to the industry, and so that's a big thing.
And so you have to start somewhere with the board.
And so what we started with was people we knew
were very knowledgeable in the industry. And have we offered
this to some people that have rejected it. Absolutely. We
have prime example, Vince Delacrots, good friend of mine, very knowledgeable,
he reached rejected it.
Speaker 2: He didn't.
Speaker 3: He says that it wasn't at a at a point
of growth where he felt like he could have, you know,
he could tie his name to it, and I get it.
Another great example is Brian Holland and in NIEMA he
rejected it pretty much was told by Niema he had
to reject it one because it was tied to me.
Speaker 2: And I get that.
Speaker 3: So it's fine, you know, I don't I don't have
a problem with that. But what they don't understand. It's
it's less mean, it's more it's all it's all about
the corporation and and everything.
Speaker 2: But it's it's okay, that's fine.
Speaker 3: So there have been some others that have you know,
that that has taken place, and that's their choice. We
certainly don't want to bring people on just to use
their name, right, So you know, if that's how somebody
would feel, then we certainly don't want them part of
the program.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't be pointless.
Speaker 3: So it's all about integrity in what you want to
bring to the to the program.
Speaker 2: And so that's all very important to me.
Speaker 3: Now we have the collection of cmecps currently right now
there are sixteen. People ask me that question all the time,
as they say, only sixteen and you've been around since
twenty seventeen. Absolutely correct, because again, at the end of
the day, it is a program you have to earn.
It's not given. I don't give these out. I don't
have the ability to give them out. It goes through
the board of directors. Now you say, Paul, what do
you mean, what's your board of directors? Okay, again, there's
two different things. There is what I call a board
that I. Basically it's separate from the CMECP. It's a
voluntary board through our company, the Electric Code Academy that
I know, well have them review things I do before
I make decisions. So it's basically just you know, they
review the competency of my actions.
Speaker 2: How about that? Uh?
Speaker 3: And it's voluntary, but I agree to listen to their
what they say.
Speaker 2: The next is the is the CMECP.
Speaker 3: Advisory Board, which are select members of the cmec program
who will do things like reviewing essays. Uh. And we've
opened it lately up to more than just the CMECP
Advisory Board because we feel that the CMECP as a
body should have more of a voting say, when somebody
gets to let's say, the essay stage. And so when
you get to the essay stage means that you've already
gone through the four weeks, you've passed all exams, you've
submitted them, they've been graded, you've gone through all of that,
and then you sat for a procted recorded exam.
Speaker 2: Every one of them is recorded and kept on a file.
Speaker 3: In fact, it's a two or maybe it's a one,
I don't remember what it is, a two terabyte Samsung
SSD drive that we just keep and back up and
that has all of the videos, that keeps everything that
we do in a zoom record it. We download it
and we put it on that file. Okay, we keep
it there so it's kept internally. And at the end
of the day they have to pass the proctered exam
and we say proctor. Now, some people say, okay, you
say procter, Paul, Is it proctor by a third party?
It doesn't have to be, folks, we're the administers of
the program. We're the corporation. Well, you say, it brings
more credibility to what. We're not trying to get government funding,
We're not trying to get some other status within the
industry in order to require third party. If at some
point we partner with companies and then they want to
do that, that's perfectly fine. But that is the reason
we record it.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So it's a proctered recorded exam so that that anybody,
upon requests can have and at the end of the
day we validate every CMMECP that it's gone through these steps.
Speaker 2: Now again, look, I'm.
Speaker 3: Perfectly aware that there are the haters out there that
just don't like me. For whatever reason. That again is
not why we created the CMMECP program.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's be clear.
Speaker 3: It is really and that is why it really hasn't
been something that we've pushed nationally very hard, because at
the end of the day, it's not a money grab.
And that's still say they'll say, oh, it's Paul just
trying to do a money grab for the corporation.
Speaker 2: I think when you.
Speaker 3: See that we only have sixteen cmecps around the country,
it's because the people. That's and we're very open about it.
We promoted it. If you think we're not getting applicants,
you're you're wrong. But at the end of the day,
very you know, a small percentage of people make it
through the program, and it's not because it's hard. Code
is code. We're gonna teach you what you need to
know in the program. But you're also a master electrician,
so you also have this inherent knowledge right that you
that you've that you have by passing your original licensing exam.
But we remember that licensing exams are simply gateways. It
gets you into being a master electrician, but by far tea,
you know you are not a master of your craft
by just getting your master's license. So what the CMECP
program does is trying to take a master electrician and
enhance their knowledge and bring them up to speed or
validate their knowledge in the National Electrical Code. And we're
always doing the latest published edition, which currently is the
twenty twenty three edition. So even if a CMECP candidate
was in another state that's on the twenty twenty, it
doesn't matter. They have to go through the program on
the twenty twenty three. Why because we want them to
always be to date with the latest, the latest code edition.
That is part of our by law. That's our requirements.
That's just how it is. So it's not like we
tailor it and say, okay, you can do yours on
the twenty seventeen, you can do yours on the twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: That type of thing.
Speaker 3: Now, another question somebody asks, is anybody ever been kicked
out of the CMBCP program. Any answer is yes, one
individual has been banned or removed based on poor professional
etiquette and they have been removed. Okay, and most people
would know who that individual is, but they've been removed
from the program because they have done unethical things and
that warrants their removal from the program. We hold all
cbcps at the highest regard, so selling things that are illegal,
promoting things that are against the law, selling fake material,
all these type of things, in our mind are unethical,
and so we removed them from the program. Okay. Now,
the other question people say is how many of them
have you have been awarded? Of those sixteen, six have
been awarded, and they've been awarded to people that are
in the industry like Marty Schumacher, who people know in Maryland,
who's a very well known educator. He's also a former
top gun like me with Mike Holt, that type of thing.
So you know that there's different individuals out there that
have definitely been awarded based on their commitment to the
industry in the validation that we can make of that commitment. Okay,
and so yeah, so we have that and they're part
of what we call the original body. Do we have
any I shouldn't say removed? Yes, I'll take that back.
We have another one that was removed because they they
do not interact with the program. There was a gentleman
that was on you know, Mike Hole Videos with me
back in twenty two thousand and seven, who was an
original CMEACP.
Speaker 2: But whether it's email change, whatever.
Speaker 3: It is that he's not in the program anymore because
we can't communicate with him. He doesn't communicate, he doesn't respond,
so we removed him from the program. Okay, And that's
the beauty of the fact that it's a renewal program.
Now we haven't charged any renewals, but it does renew
every two years, and so there are rules in there
that say if you ignore or you do not participate
in the program, then you're out of the program. Because
part of being the volunteer are the ones that was
awarded CMECP at the beginning. Is the awarding, it is
part of it is your participation in the program. If
you're not going to answer or you're not going to
participate payton a program, whether you got a new email
or whatever, something whatever happened, whatever that happens, if you're
not going to participate in it, then we're you know,
you just removed from the program.
Speaker 2: You have to be active in it now some of
the things that are gonna be changing.
Speaker 3: I figured i'd answer this because I know that some
of the cmecps out there watch programs, listen to our
podcast is that we're gearing up here for twenty twenty
six to be an extremely important year for us.
Speaker 2: It is it'd be our ninth year.
Speaker 3: In the of the program, and what we're doing is
we're going to be gearing up to make sure that
we have a lot more on the back end for
those those cmecps UH in a way, a location which
where they can all come together.
Speaker 2: We do have it now.
Speaker 3: They can log in to our website, but we don't
share a whole lot in there, because again, the CEMECP
program is really not about us giving you things. It's
it's you earning the ability to use until other people
of your achievement and we validated. How you use it
and promote it is really up to you. It's no
different than if you get an IEI certification or an
NFPA certification.
Speaker 2: They're not going to give you anything.
Speaker 3: They'll give you a certification, they'll tell you you can
use their acronym, and then they acknowledge that you went
through a program.
Speaker 2: What we do the same thing.
Speaker 3: We do the exact same thing, uh, But we think
our program is different because on all of those you
just take a test. On ours, you have to literally
be a master electrician or equivalent, and you have to
go through the four month of what I call the
crucible of training. It's unlike any other program out there
in the industry. It's literally designed and it's you know what,
here's what I say.
Speaker 2: Don't trust me.
Speaker 3: Find a CMEMECP out there, whether it's on LinkedIn, you'll
see them. They use the acronym behind their name. They
earned it. Ask them, ask them about their experience.
Speaker 2: Now if they say, well, they haven't given me a
bunch of stuff.
Speaker 3: That's not what you paid for, Okay, the CCP program
like the NFPA program. I mean, I'll be honest with you.
I've served on NFPA committees for ten years. They haven't
given me shit. I'm just saying. I mean that's you know.
Everybody looks at it and goes, ooh, he serves on
the NPA. They don't give me anything. I pay for link.
They don't give us link. Okay, I pay for that myself.
So these certifications out there are not giving you anything
other than the certification. But it's it's the process. So
we are ready put you at a high esteem because
you're a master or equivalent. Then we test your knowledge
over a four month period. You finish as quick as
you want, or you can take the full four months.
You have to pass every unit, every unit, and they're
not negotiable. These aren't argumentative units. This isn't where you
can you can you say well I think this question
is wrong. It's it doesn't work like that. You don't
get that option. Okay, you say well I could have
my own opinion. No, you can't, not in the cmec
P program because it's built around solid code.
Speaker 2: In the NEEC it's not opinions. It's not an opinion piece.
Speaker 3: So you go through it and and uh and then
you get through it, and then you then you then
you get hit with the Procter recorded exam and then
after that you still have to do an essay. Now
it is on the table to bring back the five
on one or some iteration of that, like a three
on one, because but you know again, I I'll see
what the what the board says and we'll discuss it.
And it's also now going to be shared with the
CMME CPS for them to give their opinion as well.
Speaker 2: So that's something new, right, that's gonna be new.
Speaker 3: They're they're gonna have even the body is going to
have a lot more say so all of the members,
all the CMMECP members are going to have a bot
have a say in these votes as well, and they're
going to have a law large vote because they're the majority.
Speaker 2: So that's so many changes in the program.
Speaker 3: Now, when somebody asks me about the or equivalent, I
have to explain to people that not every state has
a master license.
Speaker 2: Okay, so like an Ohio, they might have a just.
Speaker 3: A electrician contractor okay, uh, if they don't have a
master if they don't have it, and you and we
will verify this when you submit your application or your
inquiry if if the state has an electoral contractor's license
and they don't have a master's license, and we consider
the electrical contractor's license equivalent to the master.
Speaker 2: So that's what we mean by equivalent.
Speaker 3: Uh So, and so that that so that's for those
people that are interested in the program and they say, well,
I'm not a master, then you may be equivalent, right.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: The other thing that people ask us, they say, well,
I'm a I'm a journeyman electrician okay, and I want
to be a master. Got you, But I also want
to be in the CMACP program and and can I
do it.
Speaker 2: Parallel with my studying to be a master.
Speaker 3: And actually that's the best value out there on the
market because we have a journeyman program that's twelve month access.
Speaker 2: You get to access it for twelve.
Speaker 3: Months, and in that twelve months you have you can
You have to still have to go through the same
thing that the normal CMMECP goes through. You still have
the same exams you gotta submit. You just get a
lot more time.
Speaker 2: To do it.
Speaker 3: You're not under the four month crunch. You with me,
you get more time. You get twelve months with the
with the with the caveat is that by the end
of that twelve months or sooner, you have to have
passed your Master's exam. If you pass your Master's exam,
that was a goal you had you become a master Electrician.
And then secondly, you have completed all of the units
in the CMECP program, then you have if you're able
to go straight to the proctered exam, and then you
get past the procter, then you go to the essay.
But it just gives you a little longer in the program,
and it allows people to join it, even if you're
a journeyman electrician. And since it's a longer time, it's
more of a commitment. From our end, it's a more
cost intensive thing to constantly monitor, keep tracked and everything.
So there is a price difference for that, obviously, but
it is also if you think about it, and you
deduct the cost of exam prep course, then at the
end of the day, it's not that big a deal.
It's about the same as a normal CCP program. So
to each his own, and we were not twisting anybody's
arm to do it that type of thing. We're perfectly
happy with it staying at sixteen or growing.
Speaker 2: It's fine. Now. One of the things we are doing
is we are looking for partners.
Speaker 3: We would love to partner with a large major manufacturer,
can be a you know, a wiring cable manufacturer, an
electrical equipment manufacturer or whatever, who believes in education, who
believes in pushing education uh and uh making better electricians. Uh.
So we're looking for those partners that want to do that.
We would love to use the CMECP program and tie
it to the EATON program. We'd love to tie it
to prismium I work for Prismium. I've never presented it
to Prismium. We'd love to offer it to Prismium. We're
not looking for exclusive exclusivity with anybody. We just want
people to understand that the whole concept, the whole concept
of the CMEMECP is to force people to understand that
the National Electrical Code is important and by taking that
extra step, you raise the bar over everybody else that's
just happy with the status quo. If you just want
to be a journey i mean master electrician and you
just want to make that paycheck and clock in and
clock out, that's fine.
Speaker 2: We have zero problem with that. We need you, God
bless you.
Speaker 3: But there are an element of electricians that want to
take their game to the very next level, and that's
who we're targeting.
Speaker 2: That's who we.
Speaker 3: Want in the CMBCP program. And so don't ask yourself
what we can do for you, ask it what it
can do for you personally in the industry, whether it's
your marketing, whether it's promotion, whether it's acknowledgment of your
skill set, however you use it, Okay, it is up
to you and the ability for you to be able
to have a program that you can point to anybody
you hire, people that hire you, pet contractors, anybody, and say,
you know what, if you want to validate, here's where
you can go to validate it.
Speaker 2: We will validate it. We will say absolutely.
Speaker 3: This person is a CMBCP and it went through our
program and we are at corporation. Don't kid yourself. This
is not a sole proprietor. This is not Paul Abernathy
just sitting at home. This is a corporation. We've been
around for a while. We started in Virginia, then we
moved to Texas, and then we came back to Virginia
and incorporated back in Virginia. So we have a long
history of being involved in this industry. I've been around
a long time.
Speaker 2: Hate me or.
Speaker 3: Love me, it's irrelevant to promoting yourself as the elite,
the next gen and when it comes to AI and
I'm gonna be honest with you, as we start needing
more electricians in all this big hiring boom. One of
our big missions with the CMBCP program, and that is
why we're starting it next year and is the push
for the tenth anniversary in the next following year. Is
the fact that we want to make sure that when
they hire these elite electricians, these best of the best,
we want them to be cmecps. We want these data
centers to say, you know what, I'm not hiring it
unless they have the CMECP credential. So that's going to
be a big effort of us to try to make
sure because what we want to do is say, hey, look, Google, Amazon,
all you companies that do the AI, all you big industries,
don't you want the best of the best. Don't you
want your leaders to be cmecps. Don't you want your
lead electricians to be cbsps. And they go why Because
they have your best interests at heart. They know the code,
they know that the installs are going to be done right, okay.
They have a network of like minded individuals who are
at the top of their profession, their top of their
electrical trade experts in the industry. All of that is
good for you and your company, and it's also good
for your workers, and it sets the tone. We have
ethics requirements and professionalism and all that kind of stuff.
And at the end of the day, it's not like
any other program out there. And I'm not just saying
that the de cliche, get a piece of paper, write
it down. Do your research on the IAEI certification, which
is for inspectors, by the way, do your research on
the stuff for NFPA Certify Professional Safety whatever. Look at
it and see what the requirements are, See what the
testing is, See the dedication of the amount of time
it takes. And I think you're going to see that
there is absolutely nothing like the CMEMECP program, and everybody
else tries to copy it, but they can't because of
the four month the procter and the essay, all combined
with the fact that you already have to be at
a certain level of criteria at the end of the day,
that's what creates the CMECP program.
Speaker 2: That's what it is.
Speaker 3: And so we're looking for partners, other associations, other institutions
that want to partner with us, and we'll take care
of the training, we'll take care of the education, will
take care of making good electricians better electricians, uh. And
that's what's going to grow the CMBCP program. And we
think it's the best thing out there for master electricians
or equivalents. So if you're interested in it, you want
more information on the CBCP program, or understanding that in
the future we're going to need more electricians, and we're
going to promote those electricians that are highly skilled. I
don't want the just the guys that don't you know,
let's say stuff like I can't see it from my house, right,
We don't want those people. That is not who I'm
interested in. That's not who the program is interested in. Okay,
it may not be for everybody, but we're gonna heavily
promote the need to have a CBCP certification, and we're
gonna have letters going out to all of these main
manufacturers and organizations requesting partnership. We're going to explain our program.
We're going to offer education to them so that they
know that they've got a resource for National Electric Code
Education which is going to correlate with their products with
the installation practices, and we will create courses and work
with them to create things that are necessary to be
successful for all cmmecps and bring a rewarding benefit for
our partners.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: And we're going to always strive to keep the costs
down and even if we implement a renewal, it's still
going to be every two years, and it's going to
be very affordable, and it's going to have a criteria
for a renewal that is very reasonable, but it's going
to be challenging for the CMEMECP. So all of that
type of stuff is coming and there'll be some cmmecps
that's say no thank you because maybe they can't feel
they can't meet that high bar. That's okay too. We
appreciate the work they've done to get from point A
to point B. But the program is growing and it's
getting close to growing beyond my capability to be able
to manage it as the director. But at some point
we probably will find another director who can dedicate way
more time than I can to it. But at this
point we have to grow it, we have to expand it,
we have to answer questions about it, and I'm here.
Speaker 2: To do that.
Speaker 3: All right, folks, All right, folks. Hopefully got something out
of the day's episode. Again, it wasn't a sales piece.
I hope you didn't take it for that. It was
trying to explain my vision on what the CMECP program
is about the future of the industry. Like I said,
we have ais companies saying that they're going to need
five hundred thousand electricians in the next ten years. The
growth is amazing, Infrastructure is getting older. We want to
position cbcps above the average master. We want people to
choose them because of that mark and because of that
commitment to the industry, not just the hands on but
the mental part. Because you know what, we get paid
to do it once, we don't get paid to do
it twice. That's important thing to always remember. Till next time, folks,
Stay safe, God bless.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning into another electrifying episode of the Master
of the ANEC podcast. We hope you're feeling more powered
up and ready to tackle the electrical world with the
knowledge and confidence you need to succeed. Remember, in the
electrical trade, knowledge is power, and we're here to make
sure you stay plugged into the latest insights, tips and
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Speaker 2: Fellow electricians and industry pros.
Speaker 1: Until next time, keep your tools sharp, your circuits clear,
and you're my focus because here at the Master of
the ANEC podcast, we're all about sparking your success. Stay safe,
stay smart, and keep mastering the trade from all of
us here at Electrical Code Academy. Thank you for all
your support and we will see you on the next
Amazing Master of the an EC podcast episode
Speaker 3: Mm hm