Dominion Energy hosts Gaston students for career program

Dominion Energy recently hosted several Grier Middle School students at the company’s Gastonia headquarters for a look into a career path at Dominion.

The event is part of Dominion’s annual partnership with the North Carolina Business Committee and its Students@Work Month.

According to Dominion representative Persida Montanez, the partnership aims to show students the local job opportunities that are available to them.

Starting at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the group of students learned about safety, types of careers available at Dominion, and what the careers and materials thereof look like in action.

Dominion technician Danny Revels asked students to identify all of the safety components required for the job until he was ready to work.

He then conducted a pipe fusion demonstration, showing the students a 400 degree tool that is used to fuse pipe.

After the demonstration, students had the opportunity to hear from a Dominion field technicians about working with residential clients, and they saw an example of the meter and pipe system that would typically be buried on site at a residence using natural gas.

The students then tried their hands at some examples of the math a Dominion engineer might work with on any given day.

After hearing from professionals in several different Dominion departments, Dominion senior talent specialist Susan Greene described the different requirements for each type of career and the opportunities for further education after being hired on with Dominion.

Students learned that Dominion employees have opportunities to get plumbing licenses, CDL certifications, and more.

“It’s a continuous learning experience,” Greene said. “Just because you get hired on here doesn’t mean the learning stops.”

The students spent the latter half of their time at Dominion watching the work happen in action.

Dominion representative Eric Newton led the students through the company’s meter testing and fabrication shops, where they learned about the processes involved in testing and repairing meters and other areas of the facility.

According to Montanez, Dominion is set to host two additional groups of Gaston students later this month.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Dominion Energy hosts Gaston students for career program