National Grid is partnering with a Capital Region career development organization to help people learn about jobs in the energy industry.
Twenty people toured National Grid’s Eastern Regional Control Center in Guilderland last Wednesday as part of 518ElevatED’s collaboration with the utility company. The eight-month Grid for Good Program takes job-ready adults through an exploration program meant to highlight the variety of fields within the industry.
Alexi Seifert is taking part in the program.
“You think of power outages, the trucks, climbing on ladders, but there's so much more, there's customer outreach, which is how me as a social worker, sociology, it's dealing with people, knowing groups, that's what National Grid have to do. So it's about knowing the skills and things that you can do every day and applying it into National Grid jobs,” Seifert said.
518ElevatED President and CEO Laura Marx says each of the program’s eight sessions have focused on transferable skills.
“Today, it's going to focus on communication, especially communication under maybe a pressure high pressure setting like in this control room. And so really, throughout the eight months, we're just looking at exposing them to career options,” Marx said.
National Grid’s Patrick Stella says the industry’s demand for workers keeps growing.
“We're going to be building out the electric system, you know, two or three times what it is today, in order to facilitate electrification, you know, with electric vehicles, and just more electric, more emphasis on electric power, we need people to do that,” Stella said.
Which means they’re recruiting at local colleges and high schools.
Hudson Valley Community College in Troy began construction on a workforce training facility, the Applied Technology Education Center, last June. Stella says National Grid is supporting those efforts.
“We actually just announced a scholarship program for that, that, you know, for people who are interested and, you know, may have some financial challenges, or, you know, we're trying to also promote diversity within the workforce. So we offered this scholarship through Hudson Valley to pay for that certification in a two-year program,” Stella said.
Stella says expanding the grid is complex and involves many different skill sets.
“It's not just the people who are building the towers and doing that, that linework. It's people who have to design that,” Stella said.
Seifert says seeing and speaking with women in the field opened her eyes to more possibilities:
“No matter what, that everybody can start and go to any job path or level, it's just about like entry work, and really applying your work. I think the most valuable thing I've learned from woman panelists, or just panelists here is that knowing the difference between a job and career,” Seifert said.
Yusef Okai, of Schenectady, is also taking part in the program and says it’s about keeping his options open.
“I think National Grid has taught me in these sessions, that there's way more towards it. And also that there's different career paths such as like relations, management, or even working in a control center, not just the general notion of just, you know, turning the electricity on. And, you know, just like the day-to-day person working outside of your house for electricity,” Okai said.
WAMC spoke with Okai on the control room floor.
A map of the company’s stations across the eastern half of New York covers the walls, reminiscent of a Cold War era movie set.
“I think it's really cool in here, and it just shows you like, everywhere that the electricity travels, obviously and how they manage, you know, how they move the electricity around the area. And also, like, I think it just goes further, like, you would just think that National Grid only like, possesses like, a small part of just New York, but they cover like, you know, as you can see in this control room, like, a lot of places, so it's intriguing,” Okai said.
“It’s one of those control rooms where it feels like they're making decisions on people's lives.”
Those who complete the program, which ends in May, receive a certificate and stipend.
