Hydro one eyeing colleges for partnerships: utility to see nearly half its staff retire within five years.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: TRAINING & EDUCATION

With nearly 40 per cent of Hydro One's 5,000 employees due to retire by 2012, the provincial utility is turning to a unique partnership with schools like Timmins' Northern College to help bridge the gap.

As just one of four Ontario colleges that make up the Hydro One Colleges Consortium, Northern is hoping to help address this expected shortage through its popular electrical technician and electrical technologist programs.

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What's more, the numbers of needed employees are expected to grow alongside the company's plans to carry out an increasing number of large-scale power and infrastructure projects across the province.

"We really need to have the right people with the right skill sets coming into our workforce at different levels, and certainly at the entry level," says Vivian Yoandis, manager of diversity and resourcing programs at Hydro One.

"We thought that partnering with some colleges would be a great thing to do, and because we are a provincial organization, a lot of work is not necessarily in the GTA-- it's east, it's north, it's west and south, and these colleges reflect that."

Following a request for proposals issued by Hydro One in the fall of 2006, four colleges were selected from across the province, including Northern as well as Mohawk College in Hamilton, Algonquin College in Ottawa and Georgian College in Barrie.

In turn, Hydro One has provided $3 million to fund the partnership, translating to a $750,000 share for each school to help finance equipment purchases, scholarships, bursaries, as well as marketing.

Working as a group, the four colleges have also received specific, standardized curriculum development to respond not only to Hydro One's future needs, but also to cater to what the company perceives as training shortcomings.

While Ontario's post-secondary schools educational system has provided the basics in its electrical programs, it has focused less on utility-focused elements such as transmission and distribution, as well as protection and control. Hydro One has to provide in-house training to new hires to compensate.

However, Tori Hanson, director of business, engineering, technology and trades at Northern College, is...