Abstract

The Iowa Valley Collaborative Lineworker Training and Awareness Project is developing new training strategies, as well as increasing public awareness of the line worker career through recruitment efforts targeted toward new populations. The project streamlines the apprenticeship system to increase flow in the educational pipeline. It also develops a new pre-employment training program that culminates in a diploma, allowing individuals to begin training as a line worker before they are employed by a utility company. The reduction in entry level positions will be addressed by building awareness of the line worker career among displaced workers from other sectors, underemployed individuals seeking better jobs, and recruiting high school students into a pre-employment diploma program.