The way I see our Apprenticship laid out compared to a line school, the line school teaches all the math and a broad section of the indusrty. They teach you to climb somewhat. They also teach skills a person could use beyond line work. When you come here we teach you the way we do line work.
Most of our new apps can't hang a service in 20 min at first but they can tell you how a substation works. . .They can't tell you what connectors are for which wire or the grip sizes. . .
well let me tell you brother we aint sending you out to build substations and power plants, we need you to grunt and grunt good and do some service work, work your way up the ladder.
Don't get me wrong line school people have a lot of talent and in most cases can climb a wee bit but they do not know how to do the work the line crews do.
Example: my partner just told me he saw some apps hanging arms at their school as a demo for the interested Utilities. . . these guys were putting the bolt with a half round washer thru the back of pole moving their belt up to hold the bolt then trying to slide the xarm on to the bolt. Maybe some of you do it that way. . .we don't, we put the bolt thru the xarm and heft the arm and bolt into the hole in one motion no monkeying around.
So while I think a utility likes the fact you spent time learning something and they prefer hiring someone with "Training" it's the gumption part were looking for. .when the rubber hits the road the apprentiship and schooling we do takes that material and makes linemen out of em. . .
Hey if I'm wrong let me know. . .I'm flexible.
T