Bishop State Community College is preparing to graduate its second class of lineworkers from its Lineworker Training Program in partnership with Alabama Power. The Lineworker Training Program Graduation Ceremony will take place on Monday, March 15, 2021 at the Bishop State Community College Southwest Campus Cafeteria which is located at 925 Dauphin Island Parkway; Mobile, Alabama 36605.
This session of the lineworker training program began on January ____. The students have completed the required 9-week course which included learning about pole climbing, electrical principles, mechanized equipment, interpersonal skills, workplace safety, and basic line construction. They will now each earned a commercial driver’s license (CDL), CPR certification, OSHA 10 card, as well as other certificates provided by Alabama Power. These graduates are also now eligible for entry-level jobs with utility companies across the Gulf Coast and beyond.
Organizers of the program hosted a job fair in February where 8 different utility companies from the Gulf Coast and throughout the Southeast participated scouting out potential candidates to hire for their respective companies. The graduates have been invited to interview with the utility companies on Tuesday, March 16th and Wednesday, March 17th. From there, they will begin receiving offers on Monday, March 22 where once accepted, graduates will be able to start working immediately with a starting pay of $19 per hour. The first graduating class took place in March 2020 and had a 100% graduation rate with all 23 participants receiving offers and starting jobs immediately following graduation.
There were 372 applicants for this session, however, due to social distancing restrictions caused by the pandemic, only 15 individuals were allowed to participate in the training program.
The next lineworker training program is set to start in June, however, applications for that session are no longer being accepted. The fourth training session is expected to start in early fall. For more information on the Lineworker Training Program and to stay up-to-date on when the next application period will begin, be sure to visit the Lineworker Training Program page of the Bishop State Community College website.
For more information about this program or other workforce development opportunities at Bishop State, please contact the Workforce Development Department at (251) 405-7082 or workforce@bishop.edu.