California Electrical Lineman Schools

It’s something that is often taken for granted, and a frustrating calamity when it's missing. Electrical power not only offers entertainment by supplying electricity to televisions and computers, it keeps medication at the correct temperature in refrigerators and life-saving cooling and heating humming along inside homes across the grid. An electrical lineman keeps the power purring to supply homes with vital energy that keeps them safe as well as entertained on a daily basis.

Not only do lineman bring power to those in need, they consistently maintain and repair electrical lines to keep the grid in good working order. A lineman builds and maintains electrical power systems.

From the glass-fronted meter at a customer’s home to the sprawling machines at power plants that keep whole neighborhoods supplied with power, the lineman works at many levels to keep the grid going. They can work in underground vaults or climb up to 300 feet in the air to work on overhead structures. They also get into traffic signals and blinking street lights, making the work exciting and different on a daily basis.

The job is important, and can become intense during the most difficult times for civilians, such as severe weather storms or heat waves. The training to become an electrical lineman is rigorous. You need a lineman apprenticeship. After working as a groundman, the student then goes through three years of apprenticeship training. After that they are an official lineman and can work at any number of federal, state, city or private organizations or companies that work on large electrical plants or structures.

There are a number of accredited electrical linemen schools up and down the coast of California that offer a wide variety of training programs. Lineman school cost can vary. Do some research before choosing a school so that you know it can provide the type of training you need for the specific job position you hope to obtain once you graduate.

The Northwest Lineman College in Oroville, Calif., has a sprawling campus with opportunities to get true training in some of the difficult areas that a lineman will face once on the job. They will learn to repair and maintain lines while perched on structures and climbing around intricate power grids. The California-Nevada Electrical AJATC is a union lineman training facility in Riverside, Calif. A few community colleges also offer electrical lineman training, including Glendale Community College, Imperial Valley College, Los Angeles Trade Technical College and the East Los Angeles Skills Center.