NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (August 06, 2016) — Curtis Brewster, Technical Trainer of The Barbados Light & Power Company Limited, says the training he will give to linesmen of the Nevis Electricity Company Limited, will draw then one step closer to becoming world class in their profession.

 

He made the comment while delivering remarks at the opening ceremony of a one-week training session for 20 linesmen at NEVLEC’s Transmission and Distribution department on September 05, 2016 at the company’s conference room at Long Point.

 

“We are looking at a professional linesman, not just a guy doing a job because there is nothing else available. You are doing it because you see it as a profession…

 

“I’m sure that you guys can look at yourselves and realise ‘Hey, I’m in the one percent of the population that can get this job done.’ That alone, should make you proud of your job you are in and the profession you’ve chosen,” he said.

 

He told the participants if they follow the programme through to the end, they would get what is considered journeyman status and would be qualified to work in that capacity anywhere in the world and that is the intention.

 

Brewster, who was a linesman for 28 years, has been a technical trainer for the past year and a half, urged the participants to learn all they can from the training exercise so that they would be able to impart their knowledge to others who would join the department later.

 

He noted that his training session would help the participants to understand the product with which they are working, how electricity works, how it behaves, what causes problems for their consumers, what will cause problems for them and how they must go about solving all that on a day-to-day basis in an effort to maintain a good quality service and safety.

 

Meantime, he commended the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) and the Board of Directors of the Nevis Electricity Company Limited (NEVLEC) for their decision to tap into expertise available in the Caribbean.

 

“I am very happy to be here, if for no other reason, you all could have easily gone to some training institution in North America and have the same thing done at probably two and a half times what it will cost you now.

 

“We have a lot of expertise in the Caribbean that I think we need to tap. We need to help each other and the fact that you are doing this means that you are thinking in the right direction,” he said.

 

Other remarks were delivered by Minister of Public Utilities on Nevis Hon. Alexis Jeffers, Chairman of NEVLEC’s Board of Directors Mr. Farrell Smithen and NEVLEC’s Acting General Manager Jervan Swanston while Transmission and Distribution Manager Ian Ward chaired the ceremony.