Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) hosted its annual Job Shadow Day on Oct. 22 at its Spring Branch district office. More than 100 students and teachers attended from high schools in Spring Branch, Kyle, Buda and Wimberley.
The event covered linework, fleet maintenance, electrical safety and PEC's use of drones as a reliability tool. PEC community outreach specialist Mikayla Herron said students learned about pay, benefits and the skills they would build if they worked for the cooperative. She said students put on safety gear, climbed poles and rode up in a bucket truck.
Adan Arellano, a junior at Canyon Lake High School, said he enjoyed learning how to climb poles, the purpose of the tools and the safety steps on the job. "I would love to become a lineman one day," he said. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects demand for lineworkers to grow 7% through 2034, faster than the average for all occupations.