Case Study: Western Electricity Coordinating Council achieves faster operator onboarding and improved employee retention with HSI

Utility improves onboarding process and employee retention through enhanced apprenticeship program

Western Electricity Coordinating Council faced slow onboarding, high turnover, and union concerns in its two-year system operator apprenticeship program because trainers were spending too much time teaching generic fundamentals and NERC certification content. To address this, the utility turned the generic and NERC portions of the program over to HSI, using HSI’s instructor-led training for the apprenticeship program.

HSI developed and delivered nine four-day instructor-led courses plus a NERC certification class (shifting seamlessly to distance learning during the pandemic), training students in cohorts of 8–10 with staggered schedules and two simultaneous apprenticeship tracks. By handling the generic curriculum, HSI enabled utility trainers to focus on hands-on, utility-specific training; the program now reports a 100% NERC certification pass rate, reduced union pushback, improved onboarding and retention, and is beginning its 10th cohort.

Western Electricity Coordinating Council