Supporting Line Trade Development
The primary purpose of this project is to support and enhance the work of the line trade as it moves through a period of extensive technological change and growth in electrical grid operations. Effective training directly impacts the powerline technician’s (PLT) ability to do their job safely and learn new technologies more effectively.
A recent Electricity Sector Council report, “Situational Analysis of the Powerline Trade”, identified as its number one recommendation a need for the industry to focus on line trade refresher training. This project will develop a common national needs/gap diagnostic in support of journeyperson refresher training through extensive qualitative and quantitative research and in-depth analysis. Further, we will develop a web-based Toolkit and associated resources to support the industry and provincial authorities in building effective post journey powerline refresher training.
There are close to 12,000 PLTs in Canada and this project will provide necessary training supports to a vast number of them. Trainers will be better equipped to deliver this training and by looking to best practices across the industry the quality of this training will improve, will be more consistent, and will better support labour mobility for the powerline trade and trades associated with powerline work.
In addition, this project will provide a pan Canadian perspective on two key associated support roles to the trade, Cable Splicer and Utilities Arborist. This will be accomplished through the development of occupational standards and associated essential skills profiles. While these roles are active in all provinces, few have developed trades profiles for these support roles and the Council will build on the existing work done by those provinces in creation of a National Occupational Standard.
For more information on the Supporting Powerline Trade Development project, please contact Debra Beauregard, Project Manager, at (613) 235-5540 x222, or by email at info@brightfutures.ca.
