A New College Institute Certified Fiber Optic Technician, or CFOT, student got the opportunity to see and learn from former class graduates in action.
NCI’S CFOT training allows students to receive a CFOT certification which is the primary Fiber Optic Association certification for all fiber optic technicians. The certification aims to give technicians knowledge, skills and abilities that can be applied to almost any job including design, installation and operation.
The program covers an overview of fiber optic applications and installations, communication systems utilizing fiber optics, fiber optic components appropriate for fiber optic networks, installation of premises and outside plant fiber optic cable, splicing and termination, testing fiber optic components and cable plants and hands-on lab exercises in splicing, termination and testing.
A student at the time of the outage, Drew Nolan, was able to get some extra real-life experience during his time in the program due to a fiber outage at NCI.
Nolan was born and raised in Henry County and now resides in Collinsville. He has been working for Henry County’s IT department for six years now and has a degree in computer science with a focus in networking and cybersecurity from Radford University.
“My manager asked if I would be interested in taking this course from NCI, and being the network guy for the County I felt this would benefit both my skills and add some value for the County as well,” Nolan said.
This was Nolan’s first time taking a course at NCI.
“The class layout was a bit different than I had experienced, the first day of class was covering the entire course book and the remaining four days were spent doing hands-on exercises and taking the certification on the last day,” he said. “I definitely learn better when there are hand-on exercises to go along with a class rather than only learning the material from a book.”
With the outage at NCI, Nolan was able to capitalize on an extra hands-on experience and see the work done by former students of the course he was taking. He said seeing the former students, Chris Kelsey and Jacob Hale, at work aligned with what he was learning in the class.
“The previous students were even using some of the same equipment that they and we learned with during the course,” Nolan said. “That really shows how much of the course stuck with them, that they were comfortable enough with that equipment to go use it in the field.”
“Watching the Martinsville team utilize their training and skillsets to expeditiously repair the network outage was an opportunity to witness a real-world local return on investment, NCI Executive Director Joe Sumner said. “NCI takes pride in knowing that our rigorous and relevant workforce trainings prepare our local workforce for the careers of today, tomorrow, and the future, all while contributing to the sustainable success of our community.”
The next training will be from Sept. 23 to 27 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and costs $1,800, though Virginia residents may qualify for reduced rates through grant funding. For more information contact Kim Phillips at kphillips@erics602.sg-host.com or visit erics602.sg-host.com.
Monique Holland
(276)-734-9603
monique.holland@martinsvillebulletin.com
Read the full Martinsville Bulletin article here.