Students in Florida’s Gulf Power academy learn energy industry basics during on-site training.
Facing a national shortage of electrical workers, two Florida utilities have established innovative partnerships with public schools to “turn on” students to careers in energy construction, generation and distribution.
Pensacola-based Gulf Power Co., which created the four-year Gulf Power Academy at West Florida High School, also based there, graduated its third class this spring. Florida Power & Light Co. in Juno Beach teamed with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, graduating its first class in a two-year high-school lineman apprenticeship program, also this year. “The more of us owners, utilities and contractors who get involved in education, the better off we will all be,” says Jennifer Grove, Gulf Power educational partnership coordinator. “We have to get engaged in the classroom.”
Both utilities began planning their programs earlier this decade. Gulf Power’s Grove began her effort to teach the fundamentals earlier when she found that new hires at the utility needed more education about power basics, such as alternating and direct current. As such, the company redirected training resources from high-level skills to entry-level programs. When Grove learned about West Florida High, a new Escambia County school dedicated to integrating academics with technical training, she approached the school about a partnership.
West Florida had no plans to offer an industrial electricity curriculum, but principal Lesa Morgan listened. “The whole concept is based on meeting the needs of the workforce, and it was from the day we met, a natural that this needed to be part of our school,” she says. “I knew this was a perfect fit.”
Gulf Power entered into an agreement to pay the school $100,000 over four years to develop the curriculum and commit employee and material resources to support the program. Grove selected a curriculum from the National Center for Construction Education and Research, which had been validated and included instructor guides and lab manuals, and combined it with state requirements. In 2006, 90% of students successfully completed the program and received NCCER electrical certification.
Eighth grade students from throughout the county apply to attend West Florida and are selected by lottery. The school receives more than 1,000 applications for 350 ninth-grade slots. During their first year, students rotate through all academy majors, which include automotive technology, aerospace, drafting, carpentry and other trades. They then apply and interview for the chosen program.
Gulf Power Co.
Voluntary mentoring by utility employees is a key part of academy training.
Gulf Power Academy accepts 24 to 27 tenth graders annually. They spend 1.5 hours per day learning about blueprints, rigging, electrical theory and other topics. Utility employees guest lecture at the academy and share company-specific skills. Students also take two field trips to tour its facilities. As juniors, they learn about conduit installations, circuit breakers, load calculations and more specific electricity generation and distribution topics. The company pairs them with specially trained mentors who “want to be representatives of our industry and pass on information about their career and others,” Grove says. “We have more volunteers than students.”
As seniors, students go to work at Gulf Power for an “advanced career experience.” During the first semester, they spend five morning hours at the utility on odd days of the week, with afternoons at the school. On even days, they are at school for the full day. “I loved the program,” says 2006 graduate Ted Haynie, now a line tech at Gulf Power. “It made it clear for me what I wanted to do.”
Students take a pre-employment test, and if qualified, become paid interns the second semester. They work two days per week at minimum wage at a job of interest. Grove says that all seniors passed this year, compared with only 40% of off-the-street applicants. “That’s one of the main reasons we stay engaged in the schools and why we are such strong supporters of this sort of education,” she says.
Upon graduation, students receive 15 hours of college credit toward an electronics engineering technology degree at Pensacola Junior College. About half of the graduates continue their studies, many working for Gulf Power as summer interns, and the other half enter the workforce or join the military. “It’s a great program,” Haynie says. “If I hadn’t had this opportunity, I’d still be confused today about what I wanted to do.”
Gulf Power has hired up to nine graduates in each of the past three years. Some work on the lines and others in the plant. “We normally get a resume and a 30-minute interview,” Grove says. With this group, “we know about who they are as persons, their families, their work ethic and their personal goals. ”
FPL has taken a different approach in its link with Miami-Dade schools, focusing on training line personnel. Students must have a 2.0 GPA, pass a state assessment test and demonstrate good attendance and behavior during their freshman and sophomore years. Khristal Hunter, a 2007 graduate, decided to take the course because it offered a chance at a good-paying job and to work outdoors with her hands.
Students must attend and pass FPL’s three-week climbing school, which includes pole climbing, rope splicing and tool identification courses. This year, FPL plans to admit 44 students to the climbing school with hopes of securing 12 to 16 for the apprentice program.
Once accepted, students spend alternating half days at the utility during their junior year and full days their senior year. They learn about electricity and safely working the lines. FPL uses the same curriculum it employs with new hires. “They come out of the program, and we hire them as apprentice line specialists,” says Maria Cardenas, manager of FPL’s distribution systems training center. “You see an awakening in these kids to all they can achieve. They are 18 and so motivated and so focused.”
FPL hired nine students this year, six boys and three girls. They will be paid $22 per hour. “I learned a lot about electricity and about myself, what I can do and can’t and to never give up,” Hunter says. “It’s a great program. You have a lot of fun. It’s hard work, so you have to give it your all.”
Energy industry officials tasked with filling workforce gaps could not be more excited. “We’re finding career academies are a great way of not only shaping curriculum but also highlighting opportunities we have in the energy-utility industry,” says Mary Miller, president of the Center for Energy Workforce Development, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit consortium of utilities and associations. A 2006 U.S. Dept. of Energy report to Congress on power industry workforce trends anticipated that demand for power line installers would exceed supply during the next decade.
Gulf Power and FPL say their programs are unique in the U.S. Grove is now helping peers at Atlanta-based utility The Southern Cos. on local career academies, and subsidiary Georgia Power may start one soon. “It's an incredible opportunity for young people,” Morgan says. “It’s the best way to bring relevance to the classroom. It’s very challenging, but very rewarding. You set the standards high, and they step up.”
Miller knew of no other power-indus-try high-school career academies, although she expects utility PEPCO and James G. Davis Construction Co., both of Washington, D.C., to launch a combined energy and construction career academy this fall. Miller hopes that career academies and similar programs will increase young people’s awareness of and interest in power careers. “We have great, well-paying, stable jobs,” Miller concludes. “They are very important to our communities and to our economy.”
