ATCO provides learning and development support and opportunities for all team members, encouraging continual growth within the organization.Supplied
When Billy Wolff joined the credit risk team at ATCO Ltd. as a summer student in 2022, he was immediately handed an important project.
The Calgary-headquartered utility has a model that tracks its exposure to all the entities it has a working relationship with. The model is highly important to the company but wasn’t as modern and up to date as it needed to be. Wolff was asked to work with colleagues to improve it. Three years later, the model he worked on is being used “every day, all day long,” and is referenced by senior-level executives.
“From being a summer student to where I am now, no matter what level I was at, there was an opportunity to do real work,” says Wolff, who is now a pension investment analyst at ATCO. “Even when you’re a summer student, you’re a valued employee. And that translated all the way through to being a full-time employee now. I talk to vice-presidents and directors, I voice my opinion and it’s very much encouraged.”
Before joining the organization in his current role in July, Wolff had worked for ATCO in summer student positions since 2021. He says the company’s human resources team made sure summer students got to learn about all the different teams at ATCO through lunch and learn events and also paired them with mentors, encouraging them to have coffee meetings.
“They were very, very big on networking, and those were invaluable connections,” he says.
Meghan Stuart, director of human resources at ATCO Energy Systems, says the company is also striving to bring more young people into the trades. In addition to sending recruitment staff to universities and colleges around the province, the company sends employees to Alberta high schools to talk to students about a career in the trades in an effort to address the large gap in skilled tradespeople.
Apprentice powerline technicians, in particular can also apply to complete their apprenticeship education at ATCO’s in-house school, she says. The program has a combination of classroom education and hands-on learning opportunities at a training facility in Leduc, Alta., as well as regular check-ins with competency assessors.
She says that the utility’s purpose resonates strongly with young people, as does the ability to grow in their careers and try out new roles within different parts of the organization.
“This is a place where you can give back to the community. It’s a place where you can demonstrate you care,” Stuart says.
The opportunity for internal mobility and to explore his curiosity within the organization was something that Wolff says he appreciated as a summer student, as well as the company’s broader focus on learning.
“When I was in private credit, my boss said, ‘If you find other areas of ATCO that are interesting, by all means go explore it. Selfishly we’d like to keep you on the team, but if you stay at ATCO, it’s a win,’” he recalls.
He says the company also strongly supports employees’ education and training. While working full-time at ATCO, Wolff has been finishing up the last semester of his undergraduate business degree, and Wolff says the flexibility he’s been given to manage his school commitments has meant a lot to him.
“My managers say school comes first above all else, and if you’re feeling overwhelmed take time off. I was very lucky in that sense,” he says. “Because I know they have my back, it makes me want to try harder in school and learn lots so I can bring it to work.”
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