March 1, 2022 – Twenty-three Onaway High School seniors toured Presque Isle Electric & Gas (PIE&G) during a Talent Tour arranged by Michigan Works! Northeast Consortium.
PIE&G is a major employer in the Onaway area and has recently moved to their newly constructed building along M211 in Onaway, MI. PIE&G is growing rapidly as they’ve entered a four phase project to bring fiber speed internet to their members. With careers in energy and internet in high-demand, this was a perfect choice to introduce local students to good-paying, potential career paths.
During the tour, a PIE&G gas tech offered a demonstration and an engineer provided information as well as a “hot line demo”, which involved frying a hot dog to a crisp on a live wire. A variety of staff discussed what they do on a day-to-day basis and how they work with different departments. The staff seemed to really like working for PIE&G and enjoyed their jobs. Students learned more about careers in the industry, what training was required for the different careers, what each different department makes/does, and what “a day in the life” would be like doing certain jobs.
At the end of the tour, Michigan Works! Youth Career Advisor Jeanie Flory spoke with students about how to learn more about careers in Energy, local training providers, and how to use the online Career Pathfinder tool.
Students said they really enjoyed the tour and were surprised to learn there were more jobs and positions available than they thought. Student favorites were the dispatch center and the lineman demonstrations. While students said they had hoped for more hands-on activities, they said they found the demonstrations regarding how dangerous power lines are to be very interesting.
