Alabama Power and Bishop State Community College are partnering to offer a lineman training program to prepare students to work as electric utility linemen. On April 4, 2019, the two will sign an agreement to move forward with the training program which will be offered at the college’s Southwest campus on Dauphin Island Parkway. The purpose of the training center is to prepare students to work as linemen for Alabama Power. A part of the agreement will
include the renovation of Building 700 on Bishop State’s campus where the new training facility will be located. It will house three classrooms and a learning laboratory. There will also be an outdoor hands-on lineman training field where future linemen can practice their newly-learned skills. “We are thrilled that this training center is coming to Bishop State,” says Dr. Reginald Sykes, Bishop State president. “This is yet another example of Bishop State providing workforce training for the Mobile County area.” Bishop State is a community college dedicated to serving the educational and workforce development needs of the community. Bishop State is an accredited, state-supported, open-admission college providing a quality and affordable education for its students. It is the college’s mission to equip its academic and technical students with the skills and knowledge needed to enter the workforce and succeed. “We are excited to partner with Bishop State to provide a facility where people of diverse backgrounds can train for good, safe jobs as distribution linemen,” said Jeff Peoples, Alabama Power senior vice president of Employee Services and Labor Relations. “Helping ensure our state’s workforce is prepared to succeed today and in the economy of the future is an important way we seek to elevate Alabama.” Alabama Power provides competitive prices and reliable electric service to 1.4 million homes, businesses and industries in the southern two-thirds of Alabama. More than 84,000 miles of power lines carry electricity to customers throughout the company’s 44,500 square-mile service area.
The ten-week lineman training program is set to begin next year. Up to 20 students will be accepted. Potential students who want to learn more about the program should contact Bishop State's Workforce Development department at (251) 405-7082 or workforce@bishop.edu.
