Thanks to Capital Region BOCES, National Grid
A Guilderland teen is wired for success thanks to his Capital Region BOCES education and BOCES’ partnership with National Grid.
Brian Barnett received a $9,000 scholarship award on June 6 from National Grid. The scholarship will fund his studies in the Overhead Electric Line Worker program at Hudson Valley Community College.
“I am excited to work with my hands. Once I am done with college, I will be able to join National Grid as an apprentice and, hopefully, work as a lineman one day,” Barnett said.
Ultimately, he would like to work with National Grid where the “action is.”
“I want to work at disaster sites restoring power lines,” Barnett said.
Representatives of the power company have formed strong ties with BOCES in recent years as they seek to fill their workforce needs.
“The partnership between National Grid and BOCES is incredibly important,” Brian Sano, Regional Director of National Grid, said earlier this school year while visiting one of the three state-of-the-art Electrical Trades program laboratories BOCES operates.
Barnett said his BOCES education went well beyond learning how to work with electricity.
“I learned communication skills. All of the workforce needs good communication skills and that is something they stressed at BOCES,” he said.
Capital Region BOCES Managing Program Coordinator for Business & Community Partnerships, Nancy Liddle, thanked National Grid for their support.
“We value National Grid’s partnership and generosity in assisting the students with their career goals,” she said.
Capital Region BOCES works with more than 300 business, union, and education partners to help fuel the regional and state economies. Through these partnerships, students can launch careers directly out of high school or land jobs that will help them pay for future educational opportunities.