Alaska Works Partnership

Pipeline Training Creates Ready Workforce

As Alaska sets its sites on building a natural gas pipeline, the need for a skilled workforce has never been greater. The annual Fairbanks pipeline training event is helping meet the demand for pipeline workers now and in the future.

The training is unlike any other in the nation. Along with the skills gained in their respective trades, trainees practice all phases of pipeline construction as a combined workforce. From fabricating support members, installing road crossings, welding, and heavy equipment operation, workers learn the teamwork it takes to build a pipeline across the Last Frontier. As part of the training, students work together to construct and lay a 2,000 foot, 12-inch diameter pipeline.

Pipefitters

Thanks to past pipeline training, hundreds of workers now have what it takes to work on pipeline
projects around Alaska. Many graduates go directly to work on Alaska’s North Slope.
The annual pipeline training event is hosted by Alaska Works Partnership, the Alaska Department
of Labor and Workforce Development, the Denali Commission, local contractors and Alaska’s four
pipeline unions – Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 375, Laborers Local 942, Operating Engineers
Local 302, and Teamsters Local 959.

Highlights of 2007 Pipeline Academy:

Ninety-seven apprentices and beginning pipeline workers were trained to go to work on Alaska’s North Slope. Pioneer Natural Resources Oooguruk Project and the replacement of 17 miles of Trans-Alaska Pipeline were two projects that required trained workers.

22 instructors helped students learn all phases of pipeline construction.
27 percent of participants came from rural Alaska.
12 percent of participants were women.
As part of the training, students constructed a 2,000 foot, 12-inch diameter pipeline.
Many graduates went directly from the training to jobs on the North Slope.
27 percent of participants of the 2007 pipeline training event came from rural communities all over Alaska. Rural students came from Beaver, Minto, Nenana, Delta, Tununak, Nightmute, Akiachak, Hoonah, Ruby, Nulato, Kotlik, Alakanuk, Mountain Village, Chevak, Bethel, and Togiak.

For more information contact Randy Cheap, AWP Field Representative 1-907-457-2597.

Click here to read more about 2007 Pipeline Training