Section 69D. Applicants for training and employment as cadet engineers shall be selected by a selection committee as hereinafter provided upon request of the municipal light board.

The selection committee shall be appointed by the municipal light board and shall be comprised of not less than five nor more than seven members; provided, however, that the committee shall include the manager and shall include at least two educators who are residents of the contracting city or town. The members of the selection committee shall be appointed for a term of one year, and shall serve without compensation.

At least three weeks prior to the date of final selection of the applicants for training and employment as cadet engineers the municipal light board shall cause a notice to be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the contracting city or town, which notice shall state that applications will be received for appointments of cadet engineers pursuant to the provisions of sections sixty-nine B to sixty-nine F, inclusive. The notice shall state the time and place at which such applications will be received.

An applicant for appointment as a cadet engineer shall be a resident of the contracting city or town, a graduate of a duly accredited high school, not less than seventeen nor more than twenty-five years of age and shall have been accepted for admission to or be enrolled in a duly accredited college or university having a course of study leading to a degree of bachelor of science in engineering, or shall have been accepted for admission to or be enrolled in a duly accredited community college or other educational institution, having a course of study in the sciences or engineering which courses would be accepted at a college or university having a course of study leading to a degree of bachelor of science in engineering.

The municipal light board shall specify the number of cadet engineers to be selected from among the applicants. The selection committee shall select cadet engineers from among the applicants on the basis of academic ability, past courses of study and good moral character. The selection committee shall not discriminate among the applicants because of race, color, creed or national origin.