Three local men graduated from Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative’s apprentice lineworker program at a ceremony recently held for their families and friends.
James Humphrey and Doug Wynn were hired into the apprentice program in August 2015. Derek Fillyaw joined them, having previously worked for SVEC as a right-of-way crewman.
The apprentice program ensures a long-term supply of highly trained, well-rounded journeyman lineworkers who can safely provide SVEC’s consumer-members with excellent electric service. To complete the program and become journeyman lineworkers, the graduates completed a minimum of 8,000 hours of on-the-job training and a minimum of 576 hours of academic study. The graduates also completed the Northwest Lineman College Lineman Certification Program that includes classroom, lab and field instruction.
“This is the second group to graduate since we launched our program in 2014,” said SVEC CEO Michael McWaters. “We’re very proud of them for their hard work and dedication to their profession. Not everyone has what it takes to become a journeyman lineworker.”
SVEC currently employs 8 apprentice lineworkers and 24 journeyman lineworkers who maintain over 4,000 miles of electric distribution lines throughout an area of about 2,000 square miles in Florida’s Columbia, Hamilton, Lafayette and Suwannee Counties.