Program pays energy students for job experience training | Bismarck State College

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Program pays energy students for job experience training

Published: Jun 12 2017
It’s hard to beat real-life experience when you are training for a career. Bismarck State College students have an opportunity to find out first-hand just how valuable experience can be through the Hess Corporation Job Experience Training (JET) program.
 
Students are eligible to apply for the JET program once they complete a semester in either the process plant, power plant or petroleum production program at BSC. Those selected maintain their full-time student status and spend one year on location at Hess, while Hess compensates students for the hours worked and provides relevant industry experience and required certifications.
 
Stacie Nachbaur, Operations Manager for Hess South of the River compares JET to the cooperative program she cut her teeth on as a student in Canada. “If you do it, it should result in a job at the end of the day. It did two things for me – provided income as a student and I came out with a job offer.”
 
Michelle Slominski of Dickinson is one of the four students hired through JET this spring. She was a truck driver in the Bakken for several years before enrolling online at BSC to earn a degree in petroleum production technology. Her experience gives her a good sense of what’s needed in the industry. 
 
“Employers out here want the best people who know what they’re doing,” Slominski says.
 
That’s BSC’s goal for students, too, according to BSC National Energy Center of Excellence department chair Alicia Uhde. “We want our students to be job ready out of the gate. Working with Hess does that and more.”

The program is one year long and offers the opportunity for students to move into a full-time position at Hess, move into an apprenticeship, or exit the program. Learn more about the program and how to apply here.