What would an electrical contracting company look like if it employed all of the finalists from the 2024 Apprentice of the Year competition? Competition winner Collin Flischel, IEC of Greater Cincinnati and Denier Electric Co., Inc., says that he and fellow participants had a lot of fun with that thought as they posed for a group picture after the hard work of the competition was completed.
“Man, that would be wild,” he notes. “It was unbelievable getting to know apprentices from every part of the country and seeing the diversity in the jobs we’ve been on and the types of work we’ve been doing. They’re all just amazing people and even better electricians. I was really excited to meet the apprentices from Columbus and Cleveland and to see all the Ohio people together.”
Congratulations to Collin for putting his head down, focusing on the tasks at hand, and putting knowledge into action to leave Colorado Springs as 2024 IEC Apprentice of the Year (AOY).
Building to this Moment
Collin originally headed to college to obtain a degree in mechanical engineering.
“About halfway through, after getting past all the prerequisites and when I actually started to get a real taste of what the engineering looked like, I thought this doesn’t feel right,” Collin remembers. “I had taken a career prep course in high school for engineering and this wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. So, I left school and took a job just to wait until the next best thing.”
Knowing he liked working with his hands, he began investigating the trades. After looking at the pros and cons of each of them, electrical interested him the most. He applied to the union, provided requested materials, and took their intro tests. Hearing back from them that it would be some six months until he even began to interview was just not acceptable to him.
“That’s a long time to wait,” Collin shares. “I had already made up my mind and was ready to enter the field.”
His next step was to contact IEC of Greater Cincinnati to apply and test. A day or so after the test he received a response inviting him to interview with contractor Denier the following Monday. He took the interview, both sides liked what they saw, and a job offer was made. Several weeks later, Collin had his first day at Denier and has been learning and progressing since then.
“I joined Denier but the IEC school year had already begun,” he recalls. “I had to wait a year which helped me to just focus on the job.”
IEC Apprenticeship Program
With a year of Denier experience, Collin began IEC Apprenticeship Program classes and never looked back on his decision to follow an electrical career path.
“The instructors and staff at IEC Cincy are incredible,” Collin says. “They really care about the education of all the students and they’re always open for any questions. Even instructors that I hadn’t had for class were very open to helping us succeed.”
“The guy that hired me at Denier, Jake Gray, is also an IEC instructor and was my instructor in second year,” Collin says. “He had won IEC Apprentice of the Year in 2013. When I was working my way through school, he kept saying ‘you’re going to go for the competition, right?’ As soon as I heard about the competition, I knew I wanted to go for it. And when Jake hired me, he was newer to that hiring role and now has some bragging rights saying he knows what to look for when it comes to apprentice of the year!
“Jake really pushed me and gave me great career advice — you get out what you put into education, to work, to the competition, to everything. He’s a really smart guy and really cares about education,” Collin concludes.
Collin is equally complimentary of IEC Cincy Training Director Kevin Collins, who he says goes “above and beyond” for educating electrical students.
“He is unbelievable,” Collin says. “I think Kevin is one of the individuals that makes Cincinnati, in my opinion, one of the best apprenticeship programs in the country. He is incredibly dedicated to IEC and its apprentices.”
Denier Support
When Collin started with Denier, he first was on a service truck and exposed to a variety of projects in Denier’s commercial and industrial niche. Next, he moved into working with Denier teams in a tenant finish role, renovating or customizing office building space changing hands. That was followed by a move to the new construction section of the company.
Collin believes Denier saw potential in him from the beginning and continues to teach and challenge him to be all he can be. He says there are a ton of Denier employees who have been there 20-plus years and even 30-plus years. To him, who is five years in, he likes seeing that people consider Denier a place to make a lifelong career.
“I like the people I work with and one of my favorite things about Denier is the abundance of opportunity it provides for all of its employees. They are big about bringing people up from the inside,” he adds. “Maybe halfway through my third year, I was running projects and supervising younger apprentices. After I graduated, I went straight from apprentice to a support foreman which was a big jump with lots of exciting and sometimes daunting responsibilities.”
Collin talks about the thrill of now having seen many projects from start to finish. In particular, the company is nearing completion of work on the University of Cincinnati building that houses an indoor practice field for the football team among other athletic facilities.
“I’ve been there since June of 2024 and it’s coming together,” he says. “I walk through and say, yeah, I remember that light. It was a pain to install but it looks pretty cool now!”
Back to the Competition
His five years with Denier and four years in the Apprenticeship Program definitely paid off when heading to the competition early in 2025. Originally scheduled for SPARK 2024 in Tampa, FL, Hurricane Milton meant a later competition and a new venue in Colorado Springs at IEC Southern Colorado. While it was a different experience without the convention crowds, Collin had nothing but praise for the event and those staff and volunteers running the event.
“The facility at Colorado Springs was really nice for our three days of competition,” Collin says. “We had the written portion one day, the big wire-off the next day, and then the remaining categories the last day. We came in on Wednesday, the night before the competition started and left on Sunday after the awards ceremony.”
He thought the ladder diagram category was the most difficult for him, as well as for most apprentices. They were given an hour to draw up the plans for the given scenario.
“It was a doozy, really rough,” he recalls.
The wire off was easier for Collin. Competitors had four hours to complete the assigned project according to specifications provided to them. Here Collin drew upon his regional wire off and Denier experience and important words he remembers hearing from Cincy’s Kevin that you don’t have to be the best at everything.
“I don’t think I placed first in any of the categories in Colorado Springs,” he says, “but I did just well enough in all categories. The total scores were extremely close, and I barely won. It was a really, really good competition.”
Collin also keeps Jake’s words about getting out of things what you put into them top of mind in his efforts. He knows he’s in the right field, is currently in the process of obtaining his master’s license, and taking advantage of Denier opportunities to explore all aspects of the trade.
“I’m going to keep gaining experience and honing my skills to be the best electrician I can be,” he concludes. “I really enjoy electrical work. The physical parts of it help me stay in shape and the mental side challenges me to figure out the pieces of the puzzle.”
Go For It!
These are the three words Collin would tell people who are considering an electrical career. In fact, he has said these words to friends and family members who have asked him about the career path.
“The skills and knowledge you get during the IEC Apprenticeship Program last you the rest of your life whether you stay in the field or not,” he says. “The basic knowledge helps you understand how something works when it goes wrong at your house. You know the safety hazards associated with electrical and you can figure out what’s wrong, decide whether you have the skills to fix it yourself or if you need to give it to somebody who does.”
Interested? Visit ieci.org/apprenticeship to begin your journey.
