ComEd Hosts Over 2,000 High Schoolers from Northern Illinois to Discover Careers in Energy

ComEd today hosted more than 2,000 students from across the region for its annual Career Day, a regional event designed to inspire area youth to explore a wide range of career paths in the energy field. Company leaders and representatives were on hand to connect with students, with more than 100 job booths and exhibits, on-site technology demonstrations, and informational sessions offered to help students discover a variety of rewarding career opportunities that are being created by the clean energy transition.

Getting more students interested in the energy and construction fields is a top priority for ComEd, as forecasts indicate a significant number of new jobs will be created to support the clean energy transition in Illinois. A recent ComEd commissioned study found that as many as 150,000 jobs supporting the transition to cleaner energy will be created in the state by the year 2050.

“The clean energy transition will create unlimited opportunities for our communities, as solar, EVs, and other innovative grid technologies grow considerably in the years ahead,” said Gil C. Quiniones, CEO of ComEd. “With ComEd focused on developing a diverse, skilled, and local pipeline of talent, our annual Career Day plays a key role in exposing local students to careers that will enable them to have a lasting impact in our industry and on their community.”

During the event, high school students had a chance to meet with representatives from across all corners of the company. On-site experiences included utility climbing demonstrations, drone pilots sharing how new technology is used to maintain and repair the grid more efficiently, and teams highlighting how goats are aiding in the effort to reduce outages and uphold reliability by keeping vegetation cleared in hard-to-reach transmission corridors. ComEd also had its helicopter and electric vehicles on site to demonstrate how the technology is used to support field crews in overseeing safe and reliable grid operations.

"Our students are always excited to engage in events hosted by our ComEd partners. Each site visit, tour, and panel is better than the last," said Curtis Lewis, Chicago Public Schools program manager for Chicago BUILDS. "ComEd is leading training and employment opportunities in clean energy here in the Chicagoland area and what excites our students the most is the variation of possibilities from solar, to drones, to the trades…. the options are abundant."