Section 69C. Any city or town owning or operating a municipal lighting or municipal gas plant pursuant to the provisions of this chapter may contract for the training and employment of cadet engineers in its plant; provided, however, that no such contract shall be entered into if there is a civil service eligible list from which an appointment may be made at the time. Such contract shall be in writing, and signed by the manager and the applicant for training and employment as a cadet engineer. Such contract shall not be voidable or unenforceable because of the age of the cadet engineer; provided, that he had attained the age of seventeen when the contract was executed and that his parent or parents assent thereto in writing.

The contract shall provide:

(a) that the cadet engineer shall, by a date to be specified, begin or continue attendance at a duly accredited college or university having a course of study leading to a degree of bachelor of science in engineering or shall begin or continue attendance at a duly accredited community college or other educational institution, having a course of study in the sciences or engineering and who shall thereafter begin or continue attendance at a duly accredited college or university, having a course of study leading to a bachelor of science in engineering. The contract may, in the discretion of the municipal light board, prescribe certain minimum courses of study to be undertaken by the cadet engineer in such community college, college, university or other educational institution;

(b) that the cadet engineer shall, throughout the course of his community college, college, university or other educational institution training as aforesaid, engage in work to be known as on the job training, at the plant under the supervision and direction of the manager or his duly authorized representative for such number of weeks during regular community college, college, university or other educational institution vacations as the municipal light board may determine. The compensation for on the job training shall be at an hourly rate to be determined by the municipal light board;

(c) that the cadet engineer shall, throughout his course of study at a community college, college, university or other educational institution as aforesaid, maintain such minimum academic standing in such community college, college, university or other educational institution as may be prescribed in the contract by the municipal light board;

(d) that the cadet engineer shall, upon final completion of his course of study at a community college, college, university or other educational institution as aforesaid, engage in work to be known as graduate on the job training on a full-time basis at the plant under the supervision and direction of the manager or his duly authorized representative for a period of time to be determined by such municipal light board and specified in the contract, which period of time shall in no event exceed a period of five years; provided, however, that the compensation for such graduate on the job training shall be at an hourly rate to be determined by the municipal light board;

(e) that the cadet engineer shall not work for any other person, corporation or municipality until such time as he has completed graduate on the job training as prescribed in the contract; provided, however, that the municipal light board may credit all or any part of time spent by a cadet engineer in active service in the armed forces of the United States as part of the cadet engineer's prescribed graduate on the job training;

(f) that the city or town shall pay all or such portion of the cadet engineer's tuition at the community college, college, university or other educational institution attended by him as aforesaid, as the municipal light board shall determine and prescribe in such contract. The term tuition shall include the actual cost of all books or laboratory or similar equipment that may be required by the cadet engineer in his course of study;

(g) that the municipal light board may, in the event that the cadet engineer at any time fails to maintain his attendance or academic standing in the community college, college, university or other educational institution as prescribed in the contract or in any other way fails to perform his obligations under such contract, terminate the contract by written notice to the cadet engineer; provided, however, that such remedy shall not be deemed to be conclusive and shall not prejudice any other remedies which the contracting city or town may have for breach of such contract, whether at law or in equity.