LADWP and Local 18 Open Modern Joint Safety and Training Institute Training Center

By Albert Rodriguez

To help improve employee safety and training, LADWP and IBEW Local 18 opened a brand new, 46,000-square foot Joint Safety and Training Institute (JSTI) training center in April 2022. Located at 11840 Glencrest Drive in the San Fernando Valley, the facility accommodates a wide range of class sizes and eliminates many of the logistical challenges associated with training LADWP employees. The center offers easy scheduling, potential reduction in travel time, learning aides such as computers, presentation screens, indoor/outdoor training spaces for hands-on equipment training, and 100 open-air parking spaces designed for larger utility vehicles that do not typically fit at other facilities. The JSTI training center offers all this in one spacious and convenient location.

“The new JSTI training center provides LADWP with an enhanced capability to conduct training that is much more efficient, timely and meaningful for employees,” said John Vanacore, Executive Director of JSTI. “We invite all managers and training coordinators to take full advantage of this new facility by conducting any future training on this site, especially if they have large groups with time sensitive training requirements.”

The facility boasts a conference room that can accommodate up to 372, three classrooms that can each hold up to 76 and a computer laboratory with seating for 108 employees. The flexibility in classroom sizes helps accommodate training in one sitting as opposed to cycling smaller classes over an extended period of time. There is also a spacious lunch and break area as well as a private lactation/quiet room. Currently, only 35,500 square feet of the facility is being utilized, with plans in the works to create a gymnasium and breakout rooms for additional training.