Power Trader (IFI)

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Looking for a high-energy career in the trades? Try becoming an electrican- more specifically a power line technician.

Western Canada's booming economy has both neighbour hood and business community development on the rise. And of course you need electric power to run them.

That's why 27-year-old B.C. native Alan Laurie decided to train in this field. He's now finishing his third year as an apprentice and already sees a promising future ahead.

“I had my doubts when I first started,” he says. “But now I see work is none stop.”

 Indeed, Laurie is a young man with a high-voltage future.   “This [power-line technician] is a sustainable industry. I knew people needed it and that this work would be around for a long time. And people will always need electricity.

 “And I like hands-on work."

Laurie will soon join the ranks of about 800 other power-line technicians in B.C. (there are about 150 more apprentices in the system) and could earn between $30 and $36 an hour, with the opportunity to work plenty of overtime at much higher rates.

With B.C.'s booming economy, there will be no shortage of work, according to the director of a private institute that trains power- line technicians.

 “Demand is absolutely huge in this area," said Phil Davis, director of the Electrical Industry
Training Institute in Surrey, B.C.. "And the demand is North America-wide. Even a guy from Australia came in trying to recruit people. There's a lot of new things that need utility work [and] BC Hydro is totally ramping up its hiring process. Contractors are also ramping it up. Mines need power and the amount of work for things like 2010 is increasing immensely. There's also a huge problem with greying heads. It's an aging workforce.

"I've heard of apprentices making money in the six figures," he added. "That's the amount of work some people are encountering. There are numerous journeypersons in the six-figure area."

Terry Receveur, manager of field services safety for BC Hydro, which has 400 power-line technicians and 50 apprentices, said in an interview that there are very few fatalities -- but that in the last five years, three power-line technicians working for Hydro have died on the job, including one in Port Alberni three months ago.

"It's an anomaly," said Receveur. "We went for years before that without any [fatalities]. It's still being intensely investigated."

Paddy Hatch, business manager of the Line Contractors' Association of B.C., which represents 28 companies, said his member companies, which employ about 350 power-line technicians, have not had any fatalities since 1993. "Seventy to 80 years ago, it used to kill one in 10."

(The Workers' Compensation Board reports that there have been 286 injury claims for power-line technicians from 2001 to 2005, plus three fatalities.)

Laurie said another reason he likes being a power-line technician is that he will have the opportunity to find work anywhere, because B.C.-trained power-line technicians are in demand throughout the world. "You can make a lot of money if you want to travel."

Davis said most apprentices are in their mid-20s and they are mostly male. "We're always looking for good candidates. We've been able to fill up [classes] by word of mouth."He said the institute also offers a pre-apprenticeship program in conjunction with Kwantlen University College in Surrey.

EITI has been providing registered apprenticeship and journeyperson upgrading training for the electrical industry since 1991, the release states.

It offers full apprenticeships and entry-level technical training programs for power-line technicians, utility arborists and electricians, and over 75 courses for journeyperson skills up-grading.

While there have several power line fatalities in Alberta over the course of the paste several year, most industry observers insist the industry is still safe. In fact, attention to safety with the electrical trades is now one of the most stringent.WSN