C-Tech Training Receives

High Marks from a Pro

March Instructor Training has just concluded at C-Tech, and one notable graduate is Terry Lukens of Intersect Technology Institute (www.intersectraining.com ) in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Terry comes from a long and varied career in the Telecom industry. He started as a lineman in 1965 with GTE in California.  He got the job at the suggestion of his wife, who already worked there.  She told him GTE was hiring, so Terry went on down and applied. “There were two jobs available,” he remembers, “operator and lineman.  I knew I didn’t want to be an operator, and I wasn’t all that sure what a lineman did, but I chose that."  Terry spent the next eight years finding out what a lineman did, setting poles and climbing them, and working with open wire.  After that, he graduated to residential installation and maintenance.  He says he was grateful to get out of the weather.

A year later Terry moved from residential to business installations. His focus here was Key Systems and PBX’s.  As anyone who has taken C-Tech’s Integrated Systems: Voice & Messaging course knows, the features and functions of these switches are programmed from a main extension.  But when Terry started in 1974, everything was hard-wired by hand.

Terry worked on business installations for about 4 years and then moved on to be a Special Services Equipment Installer, working on SS7 networks.  He did this for about five years and then, in 1987, became a Special Services Business Supervisor.  He was in charge of all business, and PBX and four-wire installations in his district, which included eight cities in California.

By 1995, Terry had become Regional Manager of Business Services, with 250 people under him and a budget of eight million dollars.  He was responsible for all Customer-Provided Installations and data systems as well in a region that extended from Pomona to the Salton Sea, and south to San Diego.

In 2002, Terry retired from GTE and decided to share the skills and knowledge of a lifetime with the students at Intersect Technology Institute.  He became an instructor at ITI, teaching hands-on cabling and database skills.

Intersect Technology Institute in Rancho Cucamonga, California was founded in 2000, and has been a C-Tech Certified Training Facility from the beginning.  They offer the three tiers of C-TECH PREP (Introduction to Telecommunications, Introduction to Network Cabling—Copper-Based Systems, Introduction to Network Cabling—Fiber Optic-Based Systems) and have added a fourth tier where they apply more intensive instruction in the hands-on skills, thus giving a more competitive edge. 

Now that he’s gone through Instructor Training, Terry calls the C-Tech program “a great foundation” for anyone seeking employment as a tech.  “It replicates what’s being done in industry,” he says. “The meat of the program pinpoints what a person needs to know when he or she approaches an employer.”  Terry singled out the layout and style of the manuals for praise, saying an instructor can assign a class to read up on a particular topic and then follow up with lecture and hands-on activities later.

Tina Nelson, ITI Director, agrees with Terry about the value of C-Tech training.  She says ITI did their homework, researching the various training programs on the market before selecting C-tech as the best of the bunch. She calls the C-Tech program “Absolutely wonderful for those who wish to enter the field.”  About 85% of the students who enroll at ITI know nothing at all about cabling when they arrive, she says, but the three tiers of C-Tech PREP, augmented by ITI’s “fourth tier” of intensive hands-on training, provide them with a solid foundation.  Tina estimates a 75-80% job placement rate after graduation.

Meanwhile, Terry says he enjoys meeting people from all walks of life in his new career, “People that want to learn.” Those are the people that ITI and C-Tech like best.