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Courtney Mosley, apprentice meter technician (left), and Brandon Krakana, safety partner, at Hydro Ottawa.Supplied
When it came time for Courtney Mosley to decide where she’d do her co-op placement, it was an easy choice: she wanted to work at Hydro Ottawa. After meeting the utility’s distribution design manager through her program at Algonquin College, Mosley says it was clear Hydro Ottawa offered a “fascinating career path for me to follow.”
Mosley, a 22-year-old apprentice meter technician, did her co-op within the utility’s distribution design team and then snagged a part-time role while finishing up her electrical engineering technician diploma. Mosley eventually followed her curiosity to the metering team, where she’s now the youngest member and working through an apprenticeship program to get her journeyperson designation.
“There hasn’t been one day where I haven’t learned something new,” she says. “As an apprentice, you’re always working one-on-one with a journeyperson whenever you’re doing jobs. I always have someone beside me that can help me understand and they’ve been a huge help. They know the city like the back of their hand.”
Hydro Ottawa is in the midst of an organization-wide knowledge transfer, says Donna Burnett Vachon, director of change and organization development. About 35 per cent of the company’s employees are under the age of 35, and that share is only continuing to grow as the company continues to hire to meet the growing demand for electricity and as many of its long-term employees are getting ready to retire.
“It’s a big transition for us, and it’s causing us to rethink what we do around training and more specifically, safety-related training,” she says.
The company is bringing back recent retirees as instructors for its powerline technician program with Algonquin College and as mentors for its apprenticeship programs to make sure younger employees can take advantage of their decades of knowledge and experience, Burnett Vachon says. It’s also employing novel and interactive technologies for important safety training.
Brandon Krakana, a 32-year-old safety partner at Hydro Ottawa, has been deeply involved with the company’s technology adoption. He’s assisted with the creation of videos that walk through how to complete a task safely, such as a safe evacuation from a bucket truck. The videos are available for employees to access anytime using their mobile devices.
He has also supported the review of new virtual reality modules, which will be embedded into the company’s student and apprenticeship programs.
“Lots of trades and technical employees throughout the company are more visual learners, so we want to assist with that and play to their strengths,” Krakana says.
Mosley says she’s itching to try out the VR module for meter technicians. In addition to completing technical tasks, she and other technicians are the face of the company and must interact with the public regularly to manage sensitive customer situations and communicate the purpose of their work.
“I’m excited to see what that training looks like because teaching that kind of stuff is not super easy,” she says, adding that she looks forward to being able to “work through a scenario and know the dos and don’ts before you do it in the field.”
Hydro Ottawa has partnerships with Algonquin College and Carleton University to promote career opportunities in the energy sector, as well as to encourage women to join the skilled trades, engineering and other technical roles. During career fairs, mentoring and networking events, Burnett Vachon says VR has been a huge help.
“They can see what it looks and feels like to be in those roles,” she says. “The electricity industry is growing exponentially; it’s the biggest change in the industry in well over 100 years. We need more people interested in pursuing careers with us.”
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