Iowa Energy Workforce Workshop



Iowa Energy Workforce Workshop

Iowa State University, Ames IA

Scheman Building

Nov 26, 2007

Summary of Responses to Survey Questions

There were four questions asked of workshop attendees, labeled “today,” “vision,” “future,” and “actions.” Responses to each question are listed below. Each number represents a response from a different person.

Today: What are Iowa’s energy-related workforce problems today? How do we obtain data to characterize them? What will it take to solve them?

1. From attending numerous meetings over the past years in the energy/utilities industry, the majority of the workforce is 55 or above.  The utilities are operating such that relatively few new hires are performed and only on a “as-needed” basis, i.e. when someone retires or leaves the company.  With the increased workload and compliance to the NERC Reliability Standards, companies’ existing workforce are tasked with these new responsibilities without the hopes of hiring new employees to decrease the burden of those who have a full plate.  This increased burden is “forcing” many who thought they would retire later to consider retiring earlier. 

 Small –town Iowa companies are having difficulties in hiring new engineers due to their location, lack of appeal, and the communities lack of activities that larger communities offer to the younger, single, and/or no children engineer. The job growth opportunities do not exist for small-town companies and often times, management is set in their ways and discourages change. After all, why change status quo.  The younger engineer has difficulties in accepting this sort of management who do not want to evolve and move the company toward the future.

How do we obtain data to characterize them?

 A survey can be performed targeting the 22-50 year olds who have Electrical Engineers who have graduated from Iowa State University and University of Iowa to ask the following type of questions:

 

?         What part of the USA are you working in?

?         For how many years?

?         What attributes of the community encouraged you to accept you first position?

?         Why did you leave your first position?

?         If you left Iowa, why?

?         What activities and the amount of time you spend on each activity do you perform or are responsible for?

?         Does your company encourage continuing education?

?         Are there job growth opportunities?  Is it important to you there is?

?         What reasons would make you want to leave your current employer?

?         Why would you want to stay where you are?  Location? Company? Community?

?         Etc.

 

What will it take to solve them?

 It was mentioned in the Monday meeting how NERC is looking into the workforce issue.  I ascertain NERC will come out with a reliability standard regarding training of maintenance and line crews.  These areas are not currently addressed outside of the control room operator.  The only way some management’s policies will change if it is enforced by the governmental agencies.

 

The Board of Directors of these small companies need to be fully aware of the workforce situation through training and be more assertive in how they gain information and not rely solely on vice-presidents who “feed” them information to what they want their directors to know.

Management must be trained in how to be good managers and consider the forward-thinking in training new employees with seasoned employees before that employee retires and is gone.  No one wants to take on a job with no training and be in a sink-or-swim situation.

2. Workforce problems are the result of declining Iowa population and declining student interest in science and engineering. The data to monitor these declines is readily available. Solution to declining population is (a) create more economic opportunities (in general) in Iowa and (b) improve quality of life from the perspective of young people. Solution to declining student interest in science and engineering is to improve the quality of science and math instruction starting in middle school.

3. Not enough engineers at all levels (new grads to 30 year vets)

Difficult to attract non-midwesterners to open positions

Data – specifics on how many and what type of engineers and survey on why non-midwesterners stay where they are

4. Need to excite students to middle school and high school level about opportunities in the energy industry

5. It’s the loss of experience the real problem. We lose one engineer, 40+year experience is lost. Young engineers stuck on a problem can go to older engineers, who do they go to now? There is a gap in the experienced workforce. There is not short term solution. We need a system. AND the system we have is collapsing!!!

6. Aging workforce

Survey the energy-related companies for job protection

Providing better opportunities and conditions relative to other states

7. Need to increase student pipeline starting at K-12

Need skill sets that meet industry needs

8. Can we make a database of returning Iowa military veterans? Scan DD214’s? Example: Keep navy boiler plans and nuclear plant operators and maintenance people in that field of work and in Iowa.

9. Lack of interest in pursuing career in non-technical position

Attracting/retaining employees in smaller communities

Quality of the work force need good math and science skills

Generational issues and potential conflict working for service industry

10. The employees are getting older and older

Demand for renewable-energy workers is increasing

Less attractive than CA or other states when it is related to the energy job position

11. From the information I heard at the workshop, Iowa needs more qualified workers and programs to attract prospective employees to Iowa and make Iowans stay in the state for employment. Feedback and statistics directly from the industry will more accurately show where Iowa stands. Government programs, college and high school partnerships and industry recruiting marketing programs will help solve this problem.

Vision: What is your own vision of Iowa’s energy future? Where do you want it to go?

1. What is your own vision of Iowa’s energy future?

 Iowa can be a power-house in the bio-renewable area given the number of ethanol plants, the Iowa Lakes’ Wind Energy Program, and the extent of wind farms.  Be the first in offering hybrids and their applicability.  Designate a community as an example how renewable energy can support a facility and offer transportation independent of foreign oil.

 

Where do you want it to go?

Industry must encourage children in middle school and high school the sciences needed to support the energy fields.  Children need to know the correlation between what they are being taught to how they can apply it as they get older.  Industry can show by example how to apply their knowledge in the jobs they require.  I liked Dairyland’s idea in presenting information at Parent/Teacher Conferences.  However, a job fair of sort needs to be presented to the children themselves.  The Marketing area should advertise their key projects to students in this forum to entice them to go into the energy field. 

 

Promoting Iowa should be another key issue.  Why can’t school districts put on bus tours to the different communities’ job fairs described above?  Many students travel to other communities either because of sports or shopping.  Often times they don’t get to see the opportunities these other communities have.

2. Iowa will combine its advantages in renewable resources (wind and biomass) with the political courage to expand the roles of conservation and nuclear energy to meet state’s future energy needs. Future electric power will come from wind and nuclear energy. Future transportation fuels will come primarily from biomass resources.

3. Not being from Iowa I am only express my opinion which I believe is similar to what is going on in Indiana and Minnesota. Programs need to be put into place to ensure that the workforce and skills needed match the expectations of the public and government regarding more efficient and reliable energy sources. We cannot “go green” and or have a more reliable grid without the skills and resources.

4. More renewable energy like wind power are needed

5. Energy independence

Blend of “best available” coal technology for base load plants complemented with “green energy” such as wind

Aggressive demand side programs

6. Much more diversified in energy sources

Nonenergy efficient

Greater control over gen???

7. Protect as future leader in clean environmental friendly technologies

8. I have no vision, depends on what people are going to do for this problem. Iowa does have potential to be silicon valley of energy. We have good renewable resources, in the heartland of US (geographically), potential for Bio-fuel leadership. Most of all, we have the largest power school in U.S. We can and should have the ambition to be the next energy valley.

9. It might as well be the first state to be energy independent

10. Iowa needs to create a diversity of energy related industries. Bio-fuel, wind/coal, ethanol, etc. To be energy independent is a lofty goal but Iowans should strive to move there.

Future: What educational/training infrastructure, partnerships, programs, and curricula need to be created to enable this vision?

1. Start early with elementary to middle to high school to college programs specifically targeting the development of science/math/engineer programs

2. Iowa needs to improve math and science education in the middle schools and high schools. We need to get seasoned scientists and engineers (possibly drawn from retiring baby boomers) in front of these students. Engineering curricula at ISU and UI needs to be more attractive to students at the Freshman and Sophomore years. Many students are discouraged by the absence of engineering courses in the first two years of study and assume all they will be doing as engineers is solving differential equations.

3. What educational/training infrastructure, partnerships, programs, and curricula need to be created to enable this vision?

The collaboration between industry and developer with the aid of the educational entities can bring the wind manufacturers to Iowa meeting the needs of the Midwest.

 

The education entities should work closely with companies who want to reach middle school and older students.  Iowa State Extension offices should apply their expertise and work with these companies.  Often times, no one knows the efficient ways to begin or take that first step.

4. More internships need to be encouraged from industry

5. It’s not about the curricula, it’s the students. There is no domestic students interested. There is one U.S. student out of 30 in graduate school. And his undergraduate major was math!! To solve this problem, it’s gonna be a cultural or in other words, education from born.

6. Introduce renewable energy in the curricula

Develop internet based training material with various other institutions (including community colleges) for energy related material

7. Need to create energy workforce education council of industry, gov’t and education

Need for publication/conferences or best

8. Efficiency/Conservation: we need early education – junior high. Make it part of state education – consumer education class. Marketing: we need to make energy careers sexy. If you like renewable, learn math and science. Renewables are about pumps, valves, fans, wires, electrical controls, etc. If you care about renewables go into those fields.

If consumer education can reduce the demand, it will partially mitigate all energy workforce shortfalls.

9. Effective program recruiting future employees from high schools that desire physical position and desire to stay in the area

Partnership with community colleges and state institutions to fill demand for technicians, engineers

10. More interaction between US college and European University or company which is more experienced in renewable energy

New degrees for wind power in universities in Iowa

Well developed future-education system in companies is needed

11. As a recruiter of college students I strongly believe we (the industry) need to do a much better job promoting the career opportunities and innovative future of the energy industry. We need to reach out to engineering students through the classroom, IEEE, SWE, NSBE, honors society chapters, power clubs, etc to get our message out there

We need to develop a comprehensive and creative power industry recruiting campaign

Action: What is the composition of groups necessary to address each need, and what are next steps?

1. Companies should team with engineering colleges and school districts to better prepare and motivate students for careers in engineering.

2. What is the composition of groups necessary to address each need, and what are next steps?

Individuals from human resource, marketing, and engineers from industry work with teachers, instructors from colleges, and grade schools to address the need to instill why students should get into the energy and engineering fields as a whole.

 

Communities need to promote living in Iowa and advertise the job opportunities available in Iowa. Create a who’s-who in Iowa of individuals who stayed in Iowa and their successes.  Be able to answer the questions “Why stay in Iowa?”, “Why I want to be an Engineer in Iowa” and “Why I want to work in the energy field”.

Communities should consider what motivates graduating seniors to leave Iowa and grow communities that would want them to stay.  Granted their may be unique attributes of a region but some may just be the extra-curricular activities that are available to young people or job opportunities or growth for the career-minded experience engineers.

3. The ISO’s need to partner with the power schools to send our message. We also need to partner with utilities to address the reliability issues and in turn be able to attract the best talent to improve the infrastructure. We need to be more vocal about the needs and the importance of addressing these needs.

4. Companies should team with engineering colleges and school districts to better prepare and motivate students for careers in engineering

5. Industry, union leadership, educational institutions (high school to college) state dept. of labor

6. Practices in outreach education classes, cooperation with educational institutions – need to assess public policy barriers to meeting educational challenges

7. The three Iowa major universities plus community colleges that have energy related education, utilities, consulting and ISO’s

Look for funding sources with DOE, NSF, Department of Education and Industry

8. Industrial members, school professors, research institutes, student organizations, parents

9. Industry needs to supply internships

Community colleges and universities need to coordinate curriculum to students can begin at community college and move to university

High schools should look to community colleges to provide tech ed opportunities for high school students

10. State/federal – supply funds legislation

Educational groups – coordinate programs/curriculum

Industry – identify jobs descriptions and numbers needed. Help fund programs and participate

Two responses were returned in the form of letters, without specifically addressing the topics on the response form. These responses are appended at the end.

Letter #1

I was impressed with the programs that were presented at the meeting. I believe that these programs provide a good base for providing the workforce that Iowa requires to become a leader in the energy field. However, there are some things that need to be done. There are basically three areas that require work:

1. Development of programs to start new people into the technical pipeline. Much of this work will need to be performed at the grade school and high school level.

2. Ensuring that Iowa colleges and universities provide the programs required for training the technical people required to provide the workforce.

3. Development of the infrastructure required to keep trained individuals within Iowa.

Although I have some views on the first and third areas, they are outside my area of expertise and I am sure that there are others in the group are much more qualified to address these issues.

I believe that I can be useful in helping to address the second of these areas.

First, it would be useful to perform a gap analysis to see what technical areas are not covered by the various technical programs offered by the various colleges and universities within Iowa. This would involve:

1. Identifying the technical programs available within Iowa.

2. Lay out the programs in a manner that will allow a review to determine which areas of the technical spectrum are not covered. It should be noted that this will be a complex process because of the wide variety technologies involved and how they are to be used.

3. If gaps in the technical training spectrum are discovered, determine if it would be cost effective to provide programs to fill the gaps.

4. Determine where it would be most effective to provide the required programs or if they should be developed at all.

5. Lastly, determine where it would be most effective to provide any added programs.

Programs that will need to be considered should include the whole spectrum, from short courses to on-line training to degree programs to on-going education in its many forms.

Having said this, I need to add one caveat, we must be very care that we do not try to force fit new programs into existing programs. Also, we must be very careful not to weaken any program. One of the strengths, that I have seen, is the respect that a degree from Iowa State University is afforded. This not only makes the ISU graduates more valuable, but which should make these programs more appealing to those looking at possible schools to attend.

Letter #2

Reflecting on many comments made in the prepared presentations, in the breakout sessions and in the wrap up session, several concerns surfaced that suggested a need to further explore to identify and evaluate present concerns before taking action to resolve them. Educating and training of employees in the electric utility work force is a very broad issue because of the many skills required in the three major sectors: Generation, Transmission and Distribution. For a utility to operate most effectively and efficiently they need well trained employees in every work classification. This includes physical activities such as that required to install, maintain and operate the overhead, underground, substation and generating station facilities, plus the work to plan, design, build the components and to coordinate their operation.

Electrical load growth, need for upgrading obsolescent equipment, need for innovative ideas and an ageing work force are realities facing the industry. Search for candidates to fill the various roles in the work force of the future is the task at hand. Other industries face similar challenges so are in competition with the electric utility industry for viable candidates.

In general, education is the responsibility of organized schools and colleges, from kindergarten to doctorate and training, the responsibility of employers. However, the type and level of education achieved have a significant bearing on the effectiveness and time required for training.

Students in the early grades take a standard set of basic courses and have only a vague knowledge of types of work there are in industry. As they progress through the grades and on to high school they become increasingly aware of their need to prepare themselves for some kind of work. This selecting process continues on into college and often changes direction from one established course of study to another. Often, complications develop because of need to transfer from a community college to a four year college and credits earned will not transfer, necessitating repeating the same course work and incurring additional expense and time. This places an unnecessary burden on the student and often the parents.

I believe an action item resulting from this workshop could be that of pursuing an effort among the Community Colleges and the four year colleges, to review their policies to allow students credit for course work satisfactorily completed at another college. Iowa State University could set an example by determining their present level of acceptance and making improvements for future credit transfers.

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