A new regional training center is being built in Pulaski County to address a shortage of linemen in the utility industry.
The Kentucky Regional High-Growth Training Center is being built on an eight-acre site in the Valley Oak Technology Complex and will be the state’s first publicly owned training center for utility linemen. The closest publicly operated facility similar to the Pulaski training center is located Georgia.
“The center will provide much-needed technical training for utilities in Kentucky,” said Allen Anderson, CEO of the South Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation. “The graduates will be a critical resource for SKRECC because nearly 40 percent of our linemen will be eligible to retire in the next five years. It is important to have trained workers ready.”
Trainees will receive instruction in fundamental tasks such as climbing utility poles, making service connections, hanging wire, operating a bucket and digger truck and performing CPR. Graduates of the program will receive an apprentice certificate approved by the Kentucky Department of Labor.
Once the facility is completed later this year, applicants will receive instruction via a curriculum donated by American Electric Power to the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Somerset Community College, part of KCTCS, will oversee instruction at the center.
Add Comment