AUB Workers Take Top Three Spots in Lineworker Testing
Media Contact:
Wayne Scarbrough
(423) 745-4501 ext. 6002
wscarbrough@aub.org
February 24, 2017
ATHENS, Tenn. – Three power division linemen from Athens Utilities Board (AUB) recently took the top three spots in a seven-state electric power association exam regimen required to become journeymen linemen.
AUB’s Abe Aziz, Dickie Slack and Matt Price finished first, second, and third respectively in their class at the TVPPA Apprenticeship Final Exam at the Bellefonte Training Center in Scottsboro, Ala.
Aziz scored a perfect 100 on the final exam with Slack close behind at 99.8 and Price scoring 99.2, rounding out the trifecta for AUB’s sweep of the top spots in the seventeen member class.
“It is extraordinary to have all employees from one utility score so well on the examination,” said TVPPA training official Caleb Hall.
Annually, about 100 aspiring linemen attend the school and face the multifaceted exam, which incorporates two and a half days of written examinations coupled with laboratory demonstration of critical skills in the field.
This was the first time in AUB’s history that an apprentice scored a perfect 100.
“This demonstrates a true mastery of the skill and recognizes that the apprentice not only performed every task asked of him, but exceeded in his performance of those tasks on more than one occasion,” said TVPPA’s Hall.
“This regimen is demanding even for the best of the best,” said AUB’s Phil Graves, a former AUB line-crew foreman who now serves as the utility’s director of management services.
Each candidate must complete seven progressively demanding lab sessions (about 250 hours) proving hands-on mastery of high-voltage power system fundamentals, line construction, system operations, underground infrastructure, and system troubleshooting.
Concurrently, candidates face some 350 hours of rigorous correspondence study and research culminating in 40 written exams, all while maintaining a full-time job at AUB.
AUB Power Superintendent Larry Monteen said that the recent accomplishment not only speaks volumes about each individual and his commitment to excellence, it also bodes well for AUB ratepayers.
“These men are part of an ongoing strategy at AUB to find the best and brightest employees we can and then provide the training that can make them the best in the business,” Monteen said.
“It took tremendous personal determination and drive to attain the grades they did, including a considerable amount of time outside of work absorbing and testing on the various components of the program for the last three years.
“These men are dedicated to this community and this utility. They work with unusual focus to make our power system the best it can be given the resources and opportunities we have,” he said
Completion of the final exam is a milestone, but it marks only the halfway point for the three AUB line-workers in becoming certified journeymen linemen. Each has more than two years of required on-the-job experience ahead with verifiable demonstration of skills and knowledge before full certification.
AUB General Manager Eric Newberry said that the achievement by the three linemen is indicative of their individual character and also reflects on their AUB co-workers.
“This is a phenomenal personal achievement and they deserve every recognition,” Newberry said.
“These men set the tone for how we want AUB to operate day-in, day-out. It think they would gladly tell you about co-workers who supported them every step of the way, internal trainers that shared decades of knowledge and expertise, and supervisors who ensured their success by creating the opportunity to be best in class, literally and figuratively,” Newberry said.
He said that these individual accomplishments by Aziz, Slack, and Price are significant as well in that they demonstrate very tangible assets for Athens and surrounding McMinn County.
“I hope our neighbors, our customers and partners, know how genuine these men are in their desire to make things better. That includes everything they touch in the course of their daily work and lives. They are examples of dedication and work ethic across the board for all of us,” Newberry said.
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