Today, the Training Center on Safety at Work and Operation of the facilities of the E.ON Bulgaria’s electricity distribution grid, which opened at the end of last year, welcomes a group of students and their teachers from the Professional High School of Electrical Engineering and Electronics – Gorna Oryahovitsa. Ten of the visiting students will conduct their compulsory educational and on-the-job practice at the E.ON Bulgaria Grid Regional Service Centre – Gorna Oryahovitsa for the period of 10 weeks.

The students were instructed on the safety procedures and were presented to the basic rules on safety work with facilities of the electricity distribution grid in the lecture hall. Then, they were shown the specialized laboratories for working on electricity panels and electricity distribution cassettes, commutation devices and cables, the training transformer station, as well as the platform with specially installed overhead cable lines.

The center, in which the company has put 255 000 leva, is equipped with the most commonly used power distribution facilities, so that the employees could be trained in conditions identical to the real ones. The training center is instructing employees of E.ON Bulgaria Grid, as well as its partners – subcontractors. The plan for the centre in 2010 is to train 1000 employees of E.ON Bulgaria and about 200 employees from the subcontractors’ companies.

“What we heard here is interesting and very useful for us. We have learned some new things, which we have not studied at school.” said Tsvetelin Georgiev, a student at the Professional High School, who is going to have his educational practice at the E. ON Bulgaria Grid.

“The students have only worked in the school workshops and have no experience working in real conditions. The information they have been given during this visit, brought their attention to the basic requirements for electricity facilities work safety. When they start their on-the-job practice at E.ON Bulgaria Grid next week, they will be aware how to protect themselves, and what to learn from the professionals.”, explained Engineer Marian Atanasov, an educational and laboratory practice teacher at the Professional High School of Electrical Engineering and Electronics – Gorna Oryahovitsa.

The safe work and preservation of the life and health of the employees is a major priority of the policy of E.ON Bulgaria. In the last years the company has undertaken a number of initiatives, which are targeted at developing the professional skills of the employees and at the same time to improve the safety culture, which presents a very important part of the professional competence when operating electrical facilities.