South Carolina joins worker-training program

South Carolina has joined eight other states in a Center for Energy Workforce Development initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to train low-income young adults for careers in the energy industry.

South Carolina is entering the Get Into Energy Career Pathways pilot project — launched last year in Ohio, Washington, Georgia, Florida, California, Indiana and Minnesota — joining North Carolina under the umbrella of the Carolinas Energy Workforce Consortium.

The consortium includes industry, education and workforce representatives from both states. North Carolina companies involved include Duke Energy, Progress Energy, Pike Electric Corp., Areva Inc., Utility Lines Inc., The Shaw Group and North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives. Carolinas consortium members have committed to hiring skilled workers out of the programs developed under the Gates grant.

The Career Pathways program works to assess the interest and skill levels of low-income, young adults ages 16 to 26 for potential employment in skilled technician positions in the energy industry.

North Carolina has already identified two technical schools and appropriate curriculum for students in the target population to train to become lineworkers and power plant operators, and South Carolina will now begin the process of determining which types of programs are most needed here.

“South Carolina is in the planning process right now,” said Nelson Peeler, vice president of power delivery, system planning and operations for Duke Energy and the chair of the Carolinas Energy Workforce Consortium. “They are really anxious to get on board. It won’t take long to get them up and running.”

Peeler said the utilities represented by the consortium will provide jobs to at least 80 of the students successfully completing the lineworker and power plant operator training programs over the next three years.

“This gives us a pipeline of talented, skilled workers for the future,” he said. “Energy is a really important part of our economy. It’s great that this group of young people is being exposed to opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have; it’s great for the companies to develop talent; and it’s great for the state to have confidence that there is a future workforce for the energy industry.”

Formed in 2006, the Center for Energy Workforce Development is a nonprofit consortium of electric, natural gas and nuclear utilities and their associations — Edison Electric Institute, the American Gas Association, the Nuclear Energy Institute and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.