Michigan utilities seek new generation of line workers
Do you know a high school graduate looking for a high-paying, physical – yet vital – job? Michigan’s utility industry is looking for a new generation of electrical line workers.
The talents are rare: applicants must be able to climb to the top of a 40 foot pole with 90 pounds of tools and cable strapped to their backs and be able to climb that pole in all kinds of weather while remembering a long list of safety rules.
The rewards can be significant: the job pays an average base salary of more than $55,000. With overtime, line workers routinely make in excess of $100,000 a year.
This summer, 76 men and women gathered at the DTE training center in Westland to see seasoned line workers demonstrate their craft and decide if they too were up to the challenge of a career keeping the lights on.
Michigan’s electric companies and utilities across the nation are facing a wave of retirements as the baby boom generation of utility workers leaves the industry. Michigan companies will need to hire or train more than 1,200 line workers by 2014 just to keep up with demand, according to Economic Modeling Specialists Inc.
That reality prompted the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s workforce development team and a collaborative partnership made up of the state’s electrical utilities, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and Michigan Works! Agencies to seek and win a $4.4 million grant from U.S. Department of Labor to train Michigan recruits for jobs in the electrical utility industry.
The first group of 30 trainees just completed six weeks of boot camp, putting them in the running for apprenticeships and jobs with all the electrical utilities in Michigan and beyond.
The IBEW – DTE partnership plans to recruit more than 50 trainees for boot camps later this year and next. And beginning with the winter semester, Consumers’ Energy, the Lansing Board of Water and Light, and Lansing Community College will join forces to prepare more than 100 workers over the next two years for jobs as line workers.
The same DOL grant will also fund training for approximately 200 workers in other in-demand utility industry jobs, including substation operation and electrical maintenance.
To learn more about opportunities to train for a job as a utility worker, contact the Southeast Michigan Community Alliance (SEMCA) or the Capital Area Michigan Works! Agency.