Northwest Lineman College

Best thing that had ever happened to me best career ever it paid of every penny.
5 10 years ago (02-02-2017)

26 years in the hooks.Journeyman Lineman. Troubleman for a large utility. And now second of three generations of lineman, thanks to NWLC. Wonderful Facility, excellent teachers, quality equipment. My son said the equipment was never broke down, and that the class materials, tools and field were always quality and in top notch condition. They are not trying to maximize profit at the students expense. The facilities were always clean. The lights were always on. The instructors were always ready and willing to help, and stay late when the students requested it... On the teachers own desire. 15 weeks is not that long, when it comes to our trade. I was impressed with every facet of the school. I felt my son's GI Bill was well spent and then some. Travelling 1000 miles to see young men brim with pride at what they had accomplished was wonderful. They do a great job at showing the families what the young man accomplished. I would recommend this school at a higher cost, and completely endorse it at its currently fair price.
5 12 years ago (03-07-2014)

The reason for the negative review has nothing to do with the instructors that we dealt with on a daily basis but rather it has to do with the management. We had some really good guys as instructors even though it did feel like they were just pushing students through to get their money at times. While attending the school I signed up for both the high voltage equipment class and the crane certification class. The high voltage equipment class was set up over a weekend period at the Oroville campus for that semester. During this class you will sit there for 8 hours a day bored out of your mind wishing you could just take the test and be done with it. I took the test and passed it with ease and then when it came time to get my transcripts they did not have my certification listed on it. I emailed them and they accused me of never even showing up for the class. After paying the amount of money I did for that class there was no way I was going to not show up for it. I sent them photos of my notes from every day of the class, sent them a photo of my book with my name printed (by them) on the front cover, explained to them the individuals that were in the class and where they were sitting in relation to me, and the instructors that were there. After that I finally got an email back saying they had no copy of my test. They wanted me to take time out of my life and go take the test again with a proctor even though I was not at fault for losing the original one that I had taken. So I had to go up even higher on the chain of command till I got an email back stating that my transcripts would be fixed and sent out to me.( If you call the office and pretend like you want to compliment them, they will give you the managers email address). The email I got back finally had them admitting fault and I got my transcripts but they still don’t have all the right info on them (at this point I have given up and just considered it an expensive mistake). The next issue was the amount of time that we were shorted in the training to be crane certified. Our class was way over booked and it seemed like they were just pushing us through the training on the crane because they didn’t have the time to properly train all of us. We were even informed by the instructor that the class was overbooked but it was out of his control. I am now a certified crane operator but defiantly not a trained one. Our group was also shafted on time in the line trucks and did not receive full training in them as the other team was using them for a good percentage of the semester to work on a project at another training yard. When I did get on with a line crew I did not feel as though I got my money's worth at all but at least the line crew I was with had tools that worked. I had numerous experiences at NLC where something was broken and didn’t work properly. I would not recommend this school at all due to the management practices. The website they give you does have a good amount of jobs on it, but one of the jobs I got off of it told me they were just getting guys off of craigslist beforehand so you may want to check there first if your just wanting to get into linework. All of this was experienced at the California campus and it appears that your experience depends on what campus you go to. If you do choose to attend, the classes are really easy so find a good bar close by to occupy your time.
2 12 years ago (26-12-2014)