The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities welcomed 11 students and two faculty members from the Springville P-TECH Electrical Construction and Maintenance program recently for an information session on careers in the electrical trades, a tour of the BPU power plant and an overview of a substation. The Springville program is part of the Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES system in which students attend classes for up to six years. The students graduate with both a high school diploma and an associates degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Alfred State College.

BPU Business Development Coordinator Ellen Ditonto welcomed the class and discussed jobs in the field of electricity and emphasized the developing need for employees trained in cleantech/climate tech. She introduced BPU Transmission and Distribution Manager Tye Flurie who spoke about his own career path from line worker to management and the current types of positions available in electrical utilities. Assistant Labor Relations Administrator Shannon Pattyson reviewed job titles, requirements and benefits available to BPU employees who work in various titles in the Electric Division.

The students, who are seniors and super seniors in the P-TECH program, learned about power plant operations and visited the substation where the utility’s allocation of hydropower from the Niagara Power Project is delivered through transmission lines and distributed to industrial, commercial and residential customers.

The students’ visit was arranged by Ditonto as part of the BPU’s Retool WNY initiative aimed at business recruitment and workforce development opportunities in the emerging cleantech/climate tech sector.