Energy Industry Work Force
Growing the Next Work Force
By: Alice Clamp
Frances Walters wanted the students in her mathematics and computer science classes to consider a career in the electric utility industry. So the suburban Atlanta high school teacher spent time at Georgia Power, shadowing a field engineer and talking with a trainer about the skills needed for a variety of jobs.
"I wanted to know more about the energy business," said Walters. "That way, I can incorporate this information in my lesson plans. If I can relate what I'm teaching to the workings of companies involved in energy, it's better for my students."
Among the nuggets that Walters came away with: Students need people skills as well as math skills to do a job well. "My students were surprised to learn this, because they didn't realize the importance of being able to work well with others."
Walters is one of a handful of teachers participating in a pilot program that pairs science and math high school teachers with energy-related companies. Known as the Educator Externship Program, it seeks to provide teachers with the information and tools they need to make students aware of the many job opportunities awaiting them in electric utilities and industrial construction companies. While Walters's externship was under way at Georgia Power, another Atlanta-area teacher was wrapping up his time at Snapping Shoals Electric Membership Corp. (EMC), a distribution cooperative. Olamipo Awoyemi, who teaches physical and environmental science, spent 20 hours talking with a number of staff members to learn what the EMC looks for in prospective employees.
Awoyemi wanted his students to gain insight into the applications of science in industry. "They're learning about the components involved in the transmission of electricity, about stepping power up and down in transformers, and how to apply this knowledge in practical problems that will prepare them for exams." Students also are gaining an electricity consumer's perspective on peak and off-peak rates and their impact on utility bills. Yuliya Fadina, a math teacher in Dekalb County, Ga., spent a week in early July as an extern at Marietta Power. "I visited different departments, such as engineering, distribution, maintenance and operations, control center, meter service, marketing and sales," she said. Marietta Power staff members told her about the different technologies they use, the utility's new approach to energy conservation and environmental protection and the federal regulations it must meet. The program gave her valuable perspective on the kinds of career opportunities at utilities as well as lots of ideas for ways to put her new understanding to use in her classroom. "I would recommend the educator externship to other educators," she said.
Tom Bell, electrical director at Marietta Power, said the externship program "is an outstanding methodology to get our message out to a new generation. I would advise anyone with interest in cultivating the dissemination of career opportunities to use this design." The externship program is the brainchild of the Georgia Energy and Industrial Construction Consortium (GEICC)—known affectionately as—geek. GEICC's membership embraces the state's investor-owned, cooperative and municipal electric and gas utilities as well as industrial and utility construction companies, labor groups and education organizations., The utility roster includes Electric Cities of Georgia, the Georgia Electric Membership Corp. and Georgia Power.
For utilities that wish to participate in the externship program, the consortium acts as a matchmaker, pairing an interested teacher with each organization. In response to an expression of interest from Snapping Shoals EMC, GEICC assigned Awoyemi to the co-op. "We want to be involved because we realize that programs like this help create a future work force for us," said Victor Hurst, the cooperative's vice president of line services. "Our goal is to create an avenue that allows us to find people who are well matched to the type of careers that we offer. Such programs reduce the risk in future hiring. They also help contribute to the community."
During her externship at Georgia Power Walters gained an understanding of the connection between classroom courses and jobs in the utility industry. Scott Johnson, engineering training supervisor at Georgia Power, offered several examples that Walters can use to demonstrate the application of trigonometry to utility structures. "It's important to show students that there are real-life applications requiring knowledge of math concepts," said Johnson.
Walters also learned that Georgia Power offers plant tours, something she plans to take advantage of, and Michael Womack, the field engineer she shadowed, agreed to talk with her students about his work. "One of my teachers encouraged me to go to college," said Womack, who wanted to be an engineer. "I had the opportunity to talk with her students about the importance of having a goal. I'd like to encourage Ms. Walters's students to think about what they want to do before they enroll in a college."
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| Georgia Energy and Industrial Construction Coalition executive committee and board members, from left: Trey Harrison of Georgia System Operations Corp., Jack Williams of the Shaw Group, Suzanne Powell of Electric Cities of Georgia, Leslie Sibert of Georgia Power, Robert Morris of Georgia Department of Labor, Frieda Hill of Technical College System of Georgia, Gary Steppe of Georgia Department of Education, Debra Howell of Georgia Power, David Myers of Cartersville Electric System, and Jenny Williams of Technical College System of Georgia. Not pictured are Angie Farsee and Mike Smith of Georgia Transmission Corp., Scott Shelar of Construction Education Foundation of Georgia, Tasha Hardegree of Georgia Power and Chris Strippelhoff of Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia. |
At Snapping Shoals EMC, Hurst introduced Awoyemi to as many of the co-op's operating aspects as he could—including accounting, line services, human resources and the garage shop. "He was surprised that we have so many types of job opportunities in such a small company," said Hurst. "I emphasized that many jobs—shop mechanic, lineman—are highly skilled, requiring computer skills, technical training and an electronics background." Hurst wants students to realize that they need to acquire the necessary knowledge base in high school to ensure they're qualified for a job in the utility industry. That's a message teachers like Awoyemi can carry back to the classroom.
The program is still in its infancy, with six teachers and four utilities participating. "We're getting the bugs worked out," said the program's administrator Sharon Haworth, E.N.E.R.G.E. grant specialist at the Technical College System of Georgia. One of the challenges is coordinating the availability of teachers and utility staff, she said. The solution is to schedule most of the externships during teachers' spring and summer breaks. "As a reward for participating, teachers receive two professional learning units for an externship," said Haworth.
By the end of the summer of 2009, most of the teachers in the pilot will have completed their externships, said Haworth. "At that point, we'll ask the teachers and participating companies to evaluate the program." From the Atlanta suburban county of DeKalb, GEICC and its partner, the Technical College System of Georgia, plan to expand the educator externship program to other high schools in the state. But a key step in rolling out the externship program is lining up business partners, Hayworth said.
Degree program for technicians—The educator externship program is just one part of an ambitious undertaking aimed at meeting future work force needs in Georgia's energy industry. A key objective of the effort is the development of an electric utility technology associate degree program for technical colleges. "The effort started with a group of about 30 people from a variety of utilities—EMCs, Electric Cities of Georgia and Georgia Power," said Suzanne Powell, treasurer and manager of the GEICC Executive Committee and manager of education and development at Electric Cities of Georgia. Discussions centered on current hiring practices, the assessed need for utility technicians and what kind of qualifications those technicians needed. "We asked those in the group to become members of an advisory committee aimed at launching an electric utility technology degree program at Lanier Technical College," said Powell. She had been a member of the advisory board for Lanier's electronics technology program since the mid-1990s, and was well acquainted with the college's capabilities. "We decided to use the college's existing infrastructure to oversee the start of the new degree program," she said.
GEICC has helped create the curriculum for an associate's degree in electric utility technology at Lanier Technical College. The degree requires 14 energy-related skilled-trade courses, five of which Lanier already offers. The remaining nine are being developed. "The material for each course is being reviewed by a subject-matter expert and the GEICC advisory board," Powell said. The material also was used as guidance for the creation of state standards. As of spring 2009, 20 students were enrolled in the program at Lanier. The curriculum for the entire program will be completed this year.
"Building a degree program is much different from building a certificate program," said Powell. "Utilities have wonderful training programs for their employees, but a class at a technical college requires a different kind of instruction. There's a lot of tacit knowledge at utilities, and we had to make sure that knowledge was part of the technical college textbooks." Powell visited various utilities in Georgia to observe the programs that could be used for the Lanier courses, but they all lacked a textbook structure. "We realized that the curriculum for each course was unique, so it had to be created," she said. That was the task of a California-based company, which developed presentations, textbooks, tests and lab courses. "We wanted something we could use as an off-the-shelf package at another technical college," said Powell.
Once GEICC had created a pipeline for the program's curriculum, it had to tap instructors for the courses. "One challenge has been to bring an instructor with an electronics background up to speed on the power industry," said Powell. "We have recruited adjunct instructors from the energy industry—local utilities and energy product manufacturing companies—to teach in the evening. This brings real-life application to the material. And these experts also are helping us review the teaching material."
As one of the program's elective courses, students will spend one quarter of the school year at a utility. The program covers five different job areas—power plants, substations, metering, distribution engineering, and transmission.
Once the curriculum for the program at Lanier Technical College is completed, it will be promoted to other technical colleges for adoption. "We feel the curriculum offers a wide variety of training for technicians," said Powell.
"Through the associate degree program, "we're growing our own," said Powell. "But we're letting utilities beyond Georgia know about it. We want students to have opportunities throughout the industry."
"A passion for education is essential," said Powell, whose association with Lanier goes back to her days as a student at the technical college. Earlier this year, she spoke to students in a Lanier honors graduate program, urging them to pursue education throughout their career. "My message to them was this: education and energy awareness represent a joint action commitment in Georgia." Good jobs, good salaries—Among GEICC's many subcommittees is one on career awareness and outreach. "We're creating relationships in the community that we can tap to promote job opportunities as positions come available," said Andrew Bouldin, work force development coordinator at Southern Co.'s Southern Nuclear.
At a recent GEICC-sponsored educators forum, the Shaw Group and Southern Co. discussed the kind of employees they are looking for to work in nuclear plant construction and plant operations. "In a brainstorming session, we talked with educators about their role," said Bouldin. "We asked those educators to serve as ambassadors for the skilled labor positions that students may not be aware of. Many of them were surprised to learn about the long-term career possibilities and salaries for these skilled positions."
Middle and high schools often focus on four-year college as a career path, said Bouldin. "The idea of an apprenticeship or a two-year technical college gets less attention, so we want to emphasize them as a track to high-demand, high-paying jobs."
GEICC is looking at the skill sets needed most. Among the current work force, four groups—lineworkers, industrial construction workers, skilled plant personnel and engineers—are in the highest demand. "We've seen the greatest shortages on the distribution utility side—lineworkers and engineers," said Keith Bass, vice president, distribution operations, for Electric Cities of Georgia. "We've done a poor job of developing a pipeline to these careers," he said. As an example, Bass pointed to the lineworker, "a highly skilled position, one of the highest paid non-degree positions in any sector." But lineworkers are in short supply.
MEAG Power, the wholesale power supply agency for municipal utilities in Georgia, contracts out most of its power plant operations, but the organization feels it must be involved in GEICC's activities, must have some input, said Bass. "The vice president for power supply is taking an active role in GEICC to network and stay in the loop as to the skilled labor that will be required for new nuclear units at the Vogtle plant. There's a lot of forecasting involved with respect to labor supply and demand."
The statistics are familiar, but they still have the power to amaze. As the energy industry's qualified work force shrinks through retirement, demand for workers is exceeding supply. By 2011, there is expected to be a shortage of more than 50,000 skilled craft workers in the Southeast, according to Southern Co. Nearly one-fifth of utility industry workers are five to seven years from retirement. As several surveys have found, however, the current recession is prompting some workers to consider delaying their retirement.
The potential slowdown in retirement gives GEICC a chance to catch its breath. But the lull concerns GEICC's Debra Howell, chair of the GEICC Executive Committee and work force development manager at Georgia Power. "One of my biggest fears is that we will take our eye off the ball, and when the industry begins hiring in massive numbers in a few years, the programs won't be in place to produce these workers," she said.
Today, GEICC has more than 150 participants representing scores of companies and organizations. But it began with just a few dedicated individuals at the Southeastern Energy Skilled Trades Summit held in combination with the Southern Governors Association meeting in August 2007. From this meeting, GEICC was formed with the mission of engaging electric, nuclear and natural gas utilities and construction in strategic, unified, and results-oriented efforts to ensure a skilled work force to meet industry needs, Powell said.
To help promote this mission, GEICC and the Technical College System of Georgia collaborated in applying for a federal grant. The U.S. Department of Labor in 2008 awarded $1 million to the two groups. In addition, GEICC members and partners, together with the state, have committed more than $4 million to support work force development activities.
"A major goal of the grant is to raise awareness of energy careers," said Georgia Power's Howell. "We can't use the grant money for development of new programs, but the money can be used to enhance teacher training programs and to let people, including underrepresented populations, know that energy is a viable career. To that end, GEICC has sponsored several forums—with educators, the energy and industrial construction industries and the Department of Labor participating. The initial forum was held in Waynesboro, Ga., near the Vogtle nuclear power plant. Future forums—three to four a year—will be held in various locations around the state.
GEICC also created a Web site—Get Into Energy Georgia, which provides a host of information and resources on careers in the energy industry. And it has developed and replicated an electric utility apprentice certificate program at four technical colleges.
Many of GEICC's members also are members of the Center for Energy Workforce Development—a consortium of electric, natural gas and nuclear utilities and their associations. "And we're getting the word out: don't build your own boot camp, come to ours," said Howell. "We want companies to come here and hire our students."
In just a few years, GEICC has done a great deal. One reason for the consortium's success is the partnership among the state's major utility organizations and their members, said Howell. "We do more together than we could ever do apart. And for every program we're involved in, we always ask: who else needs to be at the table with us, who else can benefit? We share everything we learn."
The dedication of GEICC's members also accounts for its success. "We all have full-time jobs," said Howell. "But we donate our time—as much as it takes—to achieve our goal of developing the work force that the energy industry needs going forward."
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