Proms and Power Plants 101: Recruiting in high schools
According to the DOE’s report “Workforce Trends in the Electric Industry,” “One concern with the low interest in certain science and technology programs at the university level, such as power engineering [Table 2], is the lack of preparation for such programs while students are in high school, or even grade school. Students need the right combination of math, physics, and chemistry in order to pursue engineering in college.”
Table 2. Demand increasing for scarce engineers. Though the total number of jobs in the electric power industry has decreased during the past decade, and the decline is projected to continue, demand for power engineers is expected to increase 8.1% in the current decade. Staffing that increase—plus the positions left open by retirements—will put great pressure on utilities to hire engineers who might be able to make better salaries in other industries. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Several utilities, such as PSEG, already are reaching out to high school students about future opportunities in the electric power industry. And in May, the Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL) announced a unique job recruitment and training program, First STEP, which will begin building the BWL’s next-generation workforce. “First STEP” stands for First School to Training and Employment Program. The initiative will recruit area high school seniors to work as part-time BWL employees while they are still in school. The intent is to train and mentor these students for possible careers at BWL, which is Michigan’s largest public utility.
“We need to grow tomorrow’s workforce today, and I can think of no better place to start than our local high schools,” BWL General Manager J. Peter Lark announced in May. “Like many companies, the BWL will experience a large number of retirements in the next few years. Given the myriad business challenges this utility will confront, it is essential that our next-generation workforce be fully prepared. First STEP is an essential way to ensure that our future employees will hit the ground running.”
In May and June, juniors from nearly 30 area high schools received information about First STEP. High schools screened applicants and selected a group of students to be interviewed this coming fall by BWL staff. The utility will make the final selection of First STEP participants in late 2008. Starting in January 2009, approximately 20 students will work entry-level jobs at the BWL for an average of 20 hours a week. They will be paid $10 an hour and will be eligible to work until June graduation.
“Depending on the company’s future employment needs, the BWL may offer as many as 10 of those students opportunities to work full time in entry-level jobs. Other remaining qualified First STEP participants will be offered $1,500 scholarships to attend Lansing Community College,” Lark said. “Employment opportunities and scholarships are contingent on the students completing the First STEP program and meeting all high school graduation requirements.”
Crossing the generational divide through mentoring
A growing number of utilities are promoting mentoring programs between older, more-experienced employees and younger employees in order to facilitate the transfer of knowledge.
“We seek rotational opportunities to place a person into assignments that can broaden and deepen their experience. On an ad hoc basis, we may pair a person new in the job with a seasoned retiree as part of the transition plan,” Ton-Quinlivan said in describing PG&E’s mentoring initiatives.
In a similar manner, PSEG is developing plans to expand and enhance its mentorship programs in anticipation of increased worker retirements. “We are beginning to re-staff before the wave of retirements in order to facilitate knowledge transfer. Energy companies should not wait until they are hit with mass retirements before starting to hire a new generation of workers,” Rosengren said. “PSEG is developing recruitment and hiring strategies to create an overlap between retiring employees and new hires to more effectively facilitate knowledge transfer.”
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