Side by Side: A Dream, A Scholarship, A Future in the Trades

In July, ComEd joined Dawson Technical College in celebrating the latest class to graduate from the Overhead Electrical Line Worker (OELW) certification program and announced an expanded investment of up to $130,000 in scholarships for graduates of ComEd workforce development programs to attend. For 19 years, the OELW program has prepared more than 550 graduates for good-paying jobs, with more than half of those hired into full-time jobs with ComEd.

In honor of Workforce Development Month, we celebrate Arturo Rivera and Joel Garcia, two shining examples of ComEd’s vision in action – where training, scholarship and certification programs create real pathways to meaningful careers at ComEd. Side by side, they embarked on their journey towards the trades when they joined ComEd’s premier training program, CONSTRUCT Infrastructure Academy, through which they were able to earn a scholarship to join the OELW program. Together, they graduated Dawson Tech in the spring of 2024 and by the fall were hired at ComEd as Overhead Helpers. They’ve since joined the overhead apprenticeship program at ComEd, which consists of more than two years of schooling and on-the-job training, in pursuit of becoming overhead lineworkers.