Certificate Programs

Who Will Benefit

Accounting and finance employees.

What Is Included

The following courses must be taken to complete this certificate program:

• Accounting 101 Webinar (optional webinar for those without prior accounting experience)
• Challenging Financial Management
• Financial Audits and Internal Controls
• The History of Public Power (formerly The Life e-Lectric and Industry Insider)
• Key Topics in Utility Accounting
• Nuts and Bolts of Work Orders
• Unbundled Cost of Service and Rate Design
• Using the COSA Model for Rate Design (This is a webinar held after the Unbundled Cost of Service course for registrants of that full-day course.)
• Utility Budgeting and Financial Analysis

What You Will Learn 

• The history and current issues surrounding the public power industry
• The four accounting cycles
• Financial statement accounting, financial planning, and activity-based accounting
• Work order systems and processes
• The concepts of zero-based budgeting, activity-based budgeting, and extrapolation budgeting
• Commonly used methods to evaluate alternative capital projects
• The role that auditors play and the reasons why utilities need audits
• The theory surrounding unbundled rates and the development of unit costs by function

Who Will Benefit

Administrative assistants, executive secretaries, or anyone in an administrative or service-oriented role.

What Is Included 

This certificate program includes four one-day classes:

• Business Communication Skills
• Organizational Dynamics
• Personal Leadership Skills
• The Basics of Electrical Systems

What You Will Learn 

After attending the four days of this certificate program, participants will:

• Understand the duties and responsibilities of those who are in positions of power and influence
• Inspire optimum performance from oneself and one’s coworkers
• Be familiar with basic business economic theory and organizational structure
• Adopt attitudes and behaviors that enhance leadership capabilities
• Understand the basic rules and conventions of conversational and written language as they apply to the business environment
• Be ready to apply the fundamental principles of motivation and performance
• Use knowledge of electrical system principles to improve communication with internal and external customers

Who Will Benefit

Executive secretaries, administrative assistants, and secretaries who have completed Administrative Professional Certificate Level 1 or who already have training or experience in the areas covered by Level 1.

What Is Included 

This certificate program includes four one-day classes:

• Being an Effective Communicator
• Critical Thinking and Decision Making
• Developing Organizational Skills
• Positive Assertiveness in the Workplace

What You Will Learn 

After attending the four days of this certificate program, participants will know how to:

• Utilize creative problem-solving techniques
• Confidently ask the right questions and overcome the stress of decision making
• Manage stressful situations and workload with improved prioritization skills
• Improve business relationships by strengthening interpersonal communication skills
• Apply positive assertiveness techniques to accomplish set goals
• Implement an assertive delegation strategy
• Prioritize with confidence

Who Will Benefit

Customer and member service employees at public utilities.

What Is Included 

The Utility Customer Service Certificate Program is made up of eight classes:

• Advanced Communication Skills for Customer Service Professionals
• The History of Public Power (formerly The Life e-Lectric and Industry Insider)
• Internal Customers — Achieving Success through Common Goals
• Telephone Skills for Utility Customer and Member Service Professionals
• Through the Eyes of the Customer: Service Skills for All Employees
• Understanding Residential Energy Usage
• Utility Collections — The Complete Process
• Working with Challenging Customers

What You Will Learn 

• The history and current issues surrounding the public power industry
• How to look at things through the eyes of the customer through emphasis of personal-touch treatment of customers
• Improved communication skills with both internal and external customers
• Tips for determining the causes of a customer’s higher-than-expected energy use
• Understanding how customers are motivated toward satisfaction or dissatisfaction and rules for dealing with aggressive customers
• The most current credit and collections problems being faced by utilities today
• An introduction to the advanced technique of making noncommissioned sales offers

Who Will Benefit

Engineers and senior technical personnel.

What Is Included

This certificate program includes three classes:

• Distribution Engineering Planning and Analysis
• Overcurrent Protection
• Overvoltage Protection Webinar

What You Will Learn

After successfully completing this program each participant will have the knowledge of, or the ability to:

• Perform engineering planning
• Analyze a computer model of a distribution system
• Document a planning study
• Understand the preparation of a system model
• Set planning criteria
• Project future loads
• Understand system problems, such as low voltage, lagging power factor, excessive load current, and determine possible solutions
• Use present worth-analysis to help evaluate and justify engineered solutions to problems
• Factor reliability into the planning process
• Understand substation transformer protection and coordination with distribution feeders and down line devices
• Understand the application considerations of circuit breakers, relays, reclosers, sectionalizers, and fuses and the methodologies to verify source impedances for system models
• Understand the effect of transformer connections on fault current calculations and the concept of assumed fault impedance
• Lightning theory
• Grounding
• Basic impulse insulation (BIL)
• Underground application
• Arrestor application

Who Will Benefit

Foremen and crew leaders who will move into a supervisory or management role soon or who want to enhance his or her management skills.

What Is Included 

This Foreman Leadership Skills Certificate Program is made up of four two-day classes:

• Session #1: Preparing Foremen for Leadership; and Learning to Lead Others
• Session #2: Effective Problem Solving; and Transition from Employee to Foreman
• Session #3: Reducing Conflicts; and Communication and Customer Service
• Session #4: Developing Management Skills; and Building an Effective Work Group

What You Will Learn 

• How to improve relationships through an effective delegation of duties, tasks, and responsibilities
• The dynamics of workplace conflicts and strategies, and how to better manage those conflicts
• How to improve business relationships through the skills of interpersonal communication
• Effective job management skills in light of tighter deadlines and endless meetings
• The characteristics of effective leadership
• The new generation of workers who have different concepts of employers and the workplace

Who Will Benefit

Front line supervisors and managers, and those front line employees who will be transitioning to a supervisor or manager role in the near future.

What Is Included

This certificate program includes four two-day sessions plus two optional sessions.

• Session #1: Situational Leadership
• Session #2: Leadership Challenges
• Session #3: Personalities and Attitudes in the Workplace
• Session #4: HR Basics; and Building a More Effective Workplace
• Session #5: Supervising Union Employees (Optional)
• Session #6: Safety Leadership/Safety Culture (Optional)

Please note: Session #1 is the prerequisite for Session #3. Other classes may be taken in any order.

What You Will Learn

After successfully completing the coursework for the required sessions (1-4), participants will be able to:

• Provide work direction and gain cooperation
• Match leadership style to work group development
• Effectively resolve poor performance and negative attitudes
• Guide individuals and work groups toward successful results
• Encourage and support change
• Develop concrete listening and questioning skills
• Identify and work effectively with different personality types
• Bridge temperaments to development levels
• Manage projects, priorities, and deadlines
• Balance work and personal life

The optional fifth session provides a well-organized format to produce uniform interpretation of the terms and agreements of the contract, which reduces inconsistencies in dealing with union employees.

The optional sixth session helps managers build a successful safety culture that involves all levels of the organization. The instructor focuses on identifying risks, establishing individual accountability, and creating a positive safety culture that will build trust, improve management credibility, and strengthen communications.

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This program will not be offered in 2012.

Who Will Benefit

Meter readers, energy efficiency employees, linemen, and any utility personnel interested in metering or revenue protection.

What Is Included

This program includes two classes: 

• Metering #1: Introduction and Basic Application
• Metering #2: Basic Revenue Protection Program

What You Will Learn 

• How a meter measures and the basics of transformer multipliers and transformer-rated metering
• Why and how utilities bill demand penalties
• Meter-related safety regulations as applied to routine practice
• How to identify and protect against meter-related electric hazards
• Techniques for identifying and effectively reducing unaccounted-for energy losses

This program will not be offered in 2012.

Who Will Benefit

Employees who are, or will be, involved in residential weatherization programs and working with residential customers and weatherization contractors.

What Is Included 

This is a multi-day class that provides a comprehensive BPA certification program for residential energy auditors and inspectors. Two certification examinations are administered during the class. Most work is done in the classroom, but some field work is involved.

What You Will Learn 

Upon successful completion of this course, attendees will be qualified to conduct certified energy audits, thereby helping homeowners and tenants:

• Determine how energy is being used in their homes
• Implement appropriate energy-saving measures
• Understand how much those measures will cost and how quickly the measures will pay for themselves

In addition, attendees will be certified to inspect the completed residential weatherization work. Topics covered include:

• Energy and the building shell
• Air leakage and insulation
• Windows and doors
• Heating and cooling systems
• Indoor air quality
• Lighting and appliances
• Water heating
• Strategies for working with contractors and homeowners
• Ensuring a quality installation and a satisfied homeowner

This program will not be offered in 2012.

Who Will Benefit

Electric cooperative board members.

What Is Included 

The Credentialed Cooperative Director (CCD) Fast Track includes the following five courses:

• Board Roles and Relationships (2620.1)
• Director Duties and Liabilities (2600.1)
• Financial Decision Making (2640.1)
• Strategic Planning (2630.1)
• Understanding the Electric Business (2610.1)

What You Will Learn 

After successfully completing the coursework, each participant should be able to answer the following questions:

• What responsibilities do directors assume when they are elected to a cooperative board?
• To what extent are they liable for their actions and for those of the cooperative?
• What constitutes conflict of interest?
• Who are the players in today’s fast-changing industry?
• Why are facilities built to satisfy customer needs?
• What are the costs to build these facilities?
• What influences these costs?
• How are electricity and related services priced to the consumer? y Functional Area M

Who Will Benefit

Staking technicians and field engineers.

What Is Included 

The program includes the following 12 classes and 1 optional class:

• Basic Surveying
• Construction Contract Administration
• Easement Acquisition
• Joint-Use Staking and Make-Ready Surveys
• Line Inspection
• NESC and Utility Specifications
• Obtaining Permits
• Overhead/Pole-line Structure Design and Layout
• Protection/Basic Sectionalizing Design
• Qualified Worker Training (Optional – Recommended)
• Sizing Transformers and Conductors
• Underground Line Design and Subdivision Layout
• Unique Structures

Class length ranges from one to three days per class. The program generally takes up to three years to complete.

What You Will Learn 

After successfully completing coursework and tests for all 12 classes, each participant will be able to:

• Take accurate measurements
• Lay out the line route
• Acquire property easements
• Obtain governmental permits
• Size transformers and conductors
• Specify poles and assemblies
• Locate sectionalizing devices
• Identify location regulators and capacitors
• Prepare staking sheets and drawings
• Administer construction contracts
• Inspect the completed pole-line

This program will not be offered in 2012. The Materials Management Workshop takes the place of these courses every other year.

Who Will Benefit

Warehouse and materials management professionals.

What Is Included

This program includes three classes:

What You Will Learn 

After completing the course work, participants will have a working knowledge of:

• Warehouse inventory processes, management, and control
• Forecasting inventory demand and needs
• Materials returns processes
• Warehouse automation systems
• Material management inspector responsibilities
• Storage facilities
  • Warehouse locations
  • Storage principles
  • Storage change documentation
  • Dealing with every-day operations
  • Safety and risk management, and OSHA requirements
  • Hazmat
  • Leading and creating teamwork in the warehouse