NEWARK — Delmarva Power recently saw 34 students graduate from three workforce development programs, including its inaugural class in Maryland.
Through a partnership with Delaware Technical Community College, Delmarva Power’s Powering the Workforce Utility Training program graduated 15 students. For the first time, the program also graduated nine students through a new partnership with Cecil College, a community college based in Cecil County, Md. Another 10 teenaged students were graduated through the Path to Success Program, which is run in partnership with the Forum for Advancing Minority Engineers.
Those programs offers training courses between six and eight weeks, featuring industry certifications in traffic flagging, forklift operations and federal workplace safety compliance. Those certifications can be carried to other trade jobs, but Delmarva Power Workforce Development Manager Martin Harrison said the hope is to keep as many trainees in the company.
The starting salary for entry level positions at Delmarva Power is $52,000, before overtime, he told the Delaware Business Times.
“The reality is, we have a lot of entry-level job openings, but sometimes we need a little more experience for a role. But these programs are geared for all ages, and we see some participants as young as 18 and some as old as 55,” Harrison said.
For the 2024 adult cohorts, trainers held 10 minute interviews to gauge their experience in the trade fields. To Harrison’s surprise, many were introduced to construction through a father or a relative and wanted to get in the industry – they just struggled to figure out how they could do just that.
“That was eye-opening. We do have some that come in without formal training or experience. But this time, it was people just who didn’t know how to get in the industry,” he told DBT.
Delmarva Power’s Powering the Workforce Utility Training first started as a pilot program with Del Tech in 2022, and this summer marked its second cohort. Other skills taught through the program include soft skills in job interviews and writing a resume, as well as preparing for the Construction and Skilled Trades (CAST) test.
The CAST test is used as an employment exam for many trade-focused employers, mainly in utilities and covers topics like electrical repair, machine and car repair, among other topics. It’s a requirement for applicants at Delmarva Power’s lineman positions, but Harrison said it’s a barrier for people of color.
“I really do think it has to do a lot around access. If you come in for an interview and don’t know there’s a test, that can cause some anxiety. Or there’s candidates that are in their 30s and may not have done the math the test asks for since they were in high school,” Harrison said. “We really just need to work on pulling back that curtain a bit so more people can have access to those jobs.”
Delaware’s trades industry is thriving, with state officials reporting that $1.8 trillion in state construction contracts were awarded between 2015 and 2020, covering projects like roads and building new schools. The construction industry is also quickly diversifying, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that one in 10 construction workers is a woman and one in three construction workers are Hispanic as of 2020.
Delmarva Power is working to open more job opportunities to people of color, but still, 80 to 90% of the cohorts are white men with New Castle County’s program coming in as currently more diverse than Cecil County.
But Harrison said the utility company is doubling down on diversifying future cohorts.
“We’re looking for partners beyond the ones we’re reaching through our community colleges. We’re starting to explore working with the West End Neighborhood House, the Hope Center and the Kingswood Community Center,” he said. “It’s important that our workforce represents our communities where we serve.”
To date, Delmarva Power’s parent company Exelon Corporation has hired 33 graduates through its Path to Success which started in 2020 to reach high school students. The Delaware and Maryland offices hired 18 graduates who still work at the company today – and 11 of those employees have been promoted.
