Illuminating News: Local residents complete training at Power Systems Institute at Tri-C

Three residents from Bay Village and Westlake have been hired by The Illuminating Company after graduating from its utility worker training program at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C).

Thomas Busa, Brendan Teets and Nicklaus Zink were among 27 graduates in the second class since FirstEnergy Corp. reinstituted the award-winning Power Systems Institute (PSI) training program at Tri-C in 2014. The Illuminating Company is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy.

The two-year program combines hands-on utility skills training at an Illuminating Company facility in Brooklyn with technical coursework taught in Tri-C classrooms. Graduates earn an Associate of Technical Studies degree with a focus on electric power utility technology.

The program is a partnership between the College and The Illuminating Company that reflects the utility’s ongoing efforts to enhance service reliability for Northeast Ohio customers. 

“The PSI program remains the best way to add well-trained, highly skilled employees to our workforce,” said John Skory, regional president of The Illuminating Company. “The rigorous classwork and experience gained in the field by working with veteran line personnel help our new workers ensure safe and reliable electric service for our customers into the future.”

FirstEnergy originally introduced the PSI in 2000 to prepare the company’s next generation of utility line and substation workers. Programs were established at colleges throughout the company’s six-state service area, including Tri-C.

Since the program’s inception, FirstEnergy has hired more than 1,700 line and substation personnel who completed PSI programs in Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

For information on the program, visit firstenergycorp.com/psi or call 800-829-6801.