subject: Electrical Courses You Need To Succeed! [print this page] More than ever, it's important to have a solid set of skills and trades that will ensure you have steady employment regardless of the state of the economy. It's a good idea to focus on and learn professions that will always be in demand, like becoming an electrician. Even if you have never changed a light bulb before, the right electrical courses will teach you everything you need to know to enter the field.
It's good to start out learning the very basics of electricity and how it works. Unless you're starting out with a really good understanding of electricity and all the concepts surrounding it, taking a basic level course will get you up to speed quickly. You're going to want a course that goes over things like what the difference between a conductor and an insulator is; what Ohm's law is and how you can use it to figure out voltage, current and resistance; what factors go into determining strength and polarity in a current; what factors into reactance and impedance; and the differences between real power and apparent power.
You'll also want to take some electrical courses on the basics of products that use electricity. Once you know the basics of how electricity works, you'll be in a good position to learn the actual products you'll most likely be working with. You'll want to take courses that teach you about electrical products you'll encounter in residential, commercial and industrial settings. You'll need to learn the differences between panel boards, switchgear, load centers, switchboards and secondary unit substations.
Once you have the basics down, you'll be in a good position to start taking more advanced and involved courses. When selecting electrical courses, you're going to need to make a few decisions. The biggest one right now is whether to take courses in person at a school, or to learn from online courses and programs. While it's great that you can learn a lot from the internet these days, those courses still don't stack up against real-world training. When you are an electrician and doing your job, you're going to be working hands-on, not from a theoretical or digital course, so it's a good idea to get your hands on the work on soon as possible. Find a school that focuses on in-field training and apprenticeships that offers plenty of practical labs with experienced instructors.
Once you've found a school that seems good, and that offers hands-on training with its courses, you should visit the school and attend some classes. You want to make sure that students appear to be learning well in the courses, and that the instructors are knowledgeable and engaged. Do they seem like they have a real passion for teaching? Do they seem like they have a real passion for the work? Do they have decades of experience, or did they just graduate? These are all important questions to keep in mind while you're sitting in on any electrical courses you might want to take.
While you need good instructors in whatever field you might pursue, proper electrical training can be a matter of life and death, so you want to make sure you learn as thoroughly as possible.
