Training Workers for Utilities Careers

Published in the Connecticut Business News Journal, 10/8/2010

 

The Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) is teaming with a number of companies statewide to offer a training program to help workers expand their skills and knowledge and prepare them for new careers in the utility industry. The program is available to eligible participants under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) federal grant.

 

Business groups participating in the training program include the Waterbury Opportunities Industrialization Center Inc. in Waterbury, Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) and Yankee Gas in Berlin, Turner Training Group in Vernon, New England Tractor Trailer Training School in Somers, and Capital Workforce Partners/The Job Funnel in Hartford.

 

The 12-week electric/gas training session, ten conducted by CL&P and Yankee Gas, will train 12 entry-level workers, preparing them to work in the electric utility and gas industries. It also includes courses on alternative energy and the smart grid. The session will provide training for workers to receive their commercial driver's license (CDL B) and will prepare them to take the Construction and Skilled Trades (CAST) test, the standard exam for the utility industry.

 

“This is a unique program,” says Judith K. Resnick, CBIA's director of workforce development and training and executive director of CBIA's Education Foundation. “It attracts workers by providing them with cutting-edge skills and knowledge needed to work in the utility industry. It also provides employers with the skilled labor necessary to fill a critical need for trained entry-level workers in the utility business.”

 

The program is funded by the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) TANF Emergency Contingency Fund. Northeast Utilities, parent company of CL&P and Yankee Gas is providing matching funds for the training program.