POWER March 2011 - 82

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
CEWD and its partners and provides
corresponding printed material. One particularly
successful training program is offered
by Ameren (Figures 1 and 2).
■ Best practice models of educational solutions
from secondary through postsecondary
levels.
■ Energy workforce data on both the demand
for and supply of workers.
The CEWD's New Training Model
To help promote the effective education of
inexperienced men and women who want
to work in the electric power industry, the
CEWD has developed a new training program
called the Get Into Energy Career Pathways
Model (GIECP). It focuses on the needs of
three key stakeholders: potential applicants,
educators, and employers. The system is divided
into modules that support these stakeholders,
including: GIE Outreach and Career
Coaching, Career Pathways Curriculum and
Stackable Credentials, and Employer Collaboration
and Support. The Pathways Model
is designed to balance supply and demand in
the energy workforce, providing potential applicants
with the credentials and support they
need to obtain available and hard-to-fill jobs
in the energy industry.
In 2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
awarded the CEWD a $1.3 million
grant to implement eight pilot programs using
the GIECP Model. These programs grew
out of a previous grant assessing the readiness
of state energy consortia to implement
energy pathways for low-income young
adults. The eight pilot programs are currently
being launched in Ohio, North Carolina,
Washington, Georgia, Florida, California,
Indiana, and Minnesota.
3. Building new careers. Three students
in Columbia Gorge Community College's
Renewable Energy Technology (RET)
training program build a hydraulic circuit for
measuring flow characteristics. The program
trains students to be wind energy technicians.
(Left to right: John Sallee-Rohman, Martin
Clause, and Nick Scott.) Courtesy: Columbia
Gorge Community College
The goal of these programs is to assess
the interest and skill levels for 5,000 lowincome,
young adults (ages 16 through
26) for potential employment in skilledtechnician
positions. Students will have
an opportunity to earn " stackable credentials "
that focus on the foundational skills
necessary to be successful in a variety of
positions in energy. Following a pathways
system of education-which might include
boot camps, apprenticeships, certificate
programs, or an associate degree-roughly
500 young adults will be placed into electric
and natural gas utility jobs.
Wind Energy: Generating Jobs
and Electricity
In 2006, Columbia Gorge Community College
(CGCC), located in The Dalles, Oregon, established
its Renewable Energy Technology (RET)
training program, the first public training on the
West Coast for wind energy technicians. (See
www.renewableenergycareers.org/ for details.)
The wind energy industry helped design
the curriculum, which emphasizes applied
math, electronics, hydraulics, mechanics,
and workplace safety. Students enroll for
training in a nine-month certificate program
and have the option of continuing to
a two-year associates of applied science
degree (Figures 3 and 4). CGCC continues
to utilize its strong partnership with
the renewable energy industry through its
STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics] Advisory Committee.
The committee represents a broad regional
energy industry base and provides curriculum
oversight to the RET program to
ensure that the training is current and provides
the skill sets expected in this rapidly
developing industry.
" In 2008, CGCC received a $1.67 million
grant to double capacity of the RET
program in order to meet industry workforce
demands, " CGCC Career and Technical Education
Director Mary Kramer told POWER.
" The grant has allowed the college to add a
nontraditional spring entry point to the program.
Students enroll in the spring and attend
classes spring, summer, and fall. Classes are
offered late afternoon and evenings, with allday
Friday labs to accommodate those students
with jobs. The second entry point has
allowed us to train approximately 104 students
per year. "
In addition to increasing capacity, the grant
has allowed CGCC to develop alternative delivery
formats for the program. Some courses
are fully online; others offer a hybrid format
of online lectures and face-to-face labs.
During the summer of 2008, CGCC hosted
a Summer Wind Institute at the request
of the American Wind Energy Association
(AWEA), Kramer explained. The purpose of
the institute was to explore and identify common
core outcomes across developed curricula
that would meet industry expectations
for a skilled workforce. These common core
4. Hands-on training. Students in Columbia Gorge Community College's RET training
program collect parts and prepare wire for a motor controls circuit experiment. (Left to right:
Mark Lira, Summer Heebinks, Larry Stanley, and Wes Bliven.) Courtesy: Columbia Gorge Community
College
82
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POWER March 2011

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