Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative teaches students about life as a line worker

ROCKINGHAM CO., Va. (WHSV) - 40 students from Massanutten Technical Center and Spotswood High School spent Wednesday morning shadowing line workers. The “Day in the Life of a Line Worker” presentation from the Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative taught students about the importance of line work and trade jobs.

“We wanted to kind of give the students an opportunity to get hands-on with some of the tools of the trade and a learn a little bit about what it takes, as far as what training is needed,” said Lydia Weaver, community relations specialist at SVEC. “A lot of skilled jobs are on the decline as far as popularity, but they’re also very necessary,” said Weaver. “In everyday life, the world doesn’t really revolve without a lot of these trade jobs.”

For line workers, that means keeping the lights on for everyone. Weaver says events like this can help students discover new career paths, even the ones that might seem mundane.

“Electricity is a basic need in everyone’s lives. They maintain all of the infrastructure and the power lines to keep it flowing,” said Weaver.

For students at Turner Ashby, they said their day with line workers was a game-changer and that they can see themselves entering this line of work.

“I was just going to do commercial, but now that I saw this, I think linesman is it,” said student Javier Sanchez

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