The Hoosier Energy Apprenticeship, Training and Safety (HEATS) program held its first in-person graduation program since 2019 this fall at French Lick Resort.
The program, which started in 1975 as a way to ensure linemen had proper job-related safety training, expanded over the years to include other co-op employees.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 graduating classes never received formal recognition of their accomplishments. That made the 2022 graduation program a three-year celebration of 103 total graduates across four training disciplines representing not only Hoosier Energy but 17 of its 18 member cooperatives.
Among those disciplines receiving apprenticeship certificates: linemen, metering technicians and substation technicians. This year’s graduation also included the first group to complete the member services representative (MSR) program, a two-and-a-half-year course that began in 2019 and culminated in 2021.
The first metering technician class graduated in 1995 and the first substation technician class graduated in 2015. The 2020, 2021 and 2022 graduating classes now bring the total number of graduates to 781 since the HEATS program first began. The program continues to grow with no sign of slowing down.
