The first group of students in Northwest Louisiana Technical Community College's brand new lineworker program climbed poles for the first time this week. The workforce program was launched earlier this year in conjunction with SWEPCO to help train a future generation of lineworkers. 

These students are part of a 32 week program that includes up to 1,100 hours of both classroom and hands-on instruction. Students will graduate with the skills and knowledge to be successful at SWEPCO, in part, because the program's curriculum is based on programs already underway within AEP.

"This work and our comprehensive labor strategy results in SWEPCO's ability to hire lineworkers at varying levels of skills and experience and increases the available pool of qualified candidates while optimizing training costs" explained Drew Seidel, SWEPCO's Vice President of Distribution Region Operations.

Seidel and SWEPCO's Technical Training Supervisor Brad Brown were recently honored along with NLTCC Chancellor Dr. Jayda Spillers by the Louisiana Community and Technical College System at their recent Impact Awards Gala for the excellence in workforce development.

AEP and SWEPCO are designing a comprehensive labor strategy to expand higher education career and technical education partnerships as well as implement internship programs for craft positions. A similar program was similarly launched at Texas State Technical College in Marshall, Texas.