EnergyBiz - September/October 2007 - (Page 12) » Financial Front You don’T have To be a large uTiliTY. You can engage aT anY level. Unions play a major role in working with graduating students who begin entry-level jobs and join pre-apprenticeship programs after attending Washington’s community colleges. IBEW77, the local of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, participates in the The Center of Excellence for Energy Technology’s advisory board and provides subject matter expertise for setting power generation skill standards. Nineteen of the leading 20 utilities in Washington are affiliated with IBEW77, says Hins-Turner. If hired, graduates become IBEW members. When Kansas City Power & Light realized that the average age of its utility line worker was 48 years old, it initiated a program with other utilities at a local community college. Rather than operate as a lone utility, it reached out to Aquila, Westar Energy, Platte-Clay Electric Coop and the Metropolitan Community College Business & Technology Campus (BTC) to launch a two-year Kansas City Line School at Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City. The program starts in fall 2007. Targeting linemen, it includes 400 hours of internship and should attract 15 to 20 students a year. After students graduate from the program, some will advance to KCP&L’s six-week pre-apprentice training and apprentice training before vying for positions as full-time linemen. Why collaborate with other utilities? “Joining with other utilities that want to draw out of the pool means we’d have more consistent hiring,” explains William Herdegen, vice president of customer operations at KCP&L. Though quota systems are not favored, the utilities that are partnering with community colleges, which attract large number of African-American and Latino students, are in effect targeting the often-overlooked minority student. “When most utilities are selecting a partner school, diversity is often a high priority,” Miller notes. Working with Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, says KCP&L’s Herdegen, means the students involved will “mirror the community we do business in. We want a diverse workforce.” Not only do these high school and community college programs teach job-training skills but also they help change students’ perceptions of technicians’ jobs, notes Gulf Power’s Grove. Most parents want their children to attend college and obtain a four-year degree. But these internships and mentoring programs in high school show how “these advanced technical jobs play a missioncritical role in society,” Grove says. Though KCP&L is involved in the lineman program at Metropolitan Community College, that’s only one aspect of its approach of hiring workers to replace retiring baby boomers. “We’re also targeting women. We speak to women’s sports organizations, to women in high schools and at job fairs,” says Herdegen. Gulf Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, partnered with a tech high school in Pensacola. But according to Grove, any utility can get involved in educational partnerships. “You don’t have to be a large utility. You can engage at any level. You can connect with a limited number of students or host students during the summer,” she says. FINANCIAl FRoNT ‘‘ ’’ gatherings www.energycentral.com/events To view any of these events, please go to www.energycentral.com/ ) into the quick link box. quicklink and type the quick link code ( oCToBER 10-11 AWEA Wind Power Finance & Investment 11 11-12 15-17 16-19 29-30 | | How to Value Energy & Electricity Assets | Investing in Energy Storage | EMACS 2007 | Carbon Finance Asia New York New York New York Irvine, Calif. Singapore E17110 E16794 E16887 E16874 E16630 | Investing in Solar Las Vegas Lake Buena Vista, Fla. E16675 NoVEMBER 4-7 EEI Financial Conference 6-7 8-9 13-15 15-16 Barcelona, Spain | | European Wind Power Projects | Power Plant Financial Modeling and Evaluation | Energy Financial Forum | Energy Finance Schenectady, N.Y. Houston Barcelona, Spain E12468 E16973 E16926 E17028 E16976 12 E n E rgyB i z September/October 2007 http://www.energycentral.com/events http://www.energycentral.com/quicklink http://www.energycentral.com/quicklink
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