At the National Rural Water Association’s (NRWA) recent WaterPro Conference in Reno, Nev., I had the opportunity to sit down with Bill O’Connell, NRWA’s training and technical assistance program manager, and Connie Stevens, the executive director of the Alliance of Indiana Rural Water, to learn more about the WaterPro Apprenticeship Program.
Announced in November 2016, the program is designed to ensure a water sector workforce that’s well trained and capable of meeting the demands of the industry.
“It’s about the changing demographics in the country. Everybody’s feeling it,” said O’Connell. “The apprenticeship program is an effort for us to ensure a pipeline of qualified people that are moving up to replace the retirees that are coming out of the baby boomers.”
According to the National Rural Water Association, it takes over 380,000 highly skilled water and wastewater personnel to ensure the public supply of safe drinking water and to protect water resources. It’s expected that by 2020 the water sector will have lost up to 50 percent of its workforce to retirement.
“We want to make sure that the people running our water and wastewater facilities are competent, well trained, and comfortable in their positions,” added O’Connell. “The apprenticeship program allows that to happen.”
A national guideline standard has been developed by NRWA and approved by the Department of Labor. “Then that’s gone to the states,” O’Connell explained. “The state associations then take it and get the registered apprenticeship program where they have the apprentices.”
“It’s a big hit in Indiana,” said Stevens. “We have the attention of legislators, our governor in Indiana, and the Department of Labor.”
These positions need to be filled, Stevens noted. “They can’t have just anyone coming in there to run a water treatment plant; they have to be very knowledgeable people and we are very confident that by the time they complete this two-year program, we will have … well trained people to run the next generation [of water treatment facilities].”
Another benefit of the apprenticeship program is that it creates a pathway for passing down decades of knowledge and experience that aren’t written down.
“That’s the great thing about the on-the-job training part of it,” said O’Connell. “Two thousand hours a year under the guidance of a senior person at that utility on what it takes to make that utility operate optimally.”
For more information on apprenticeship opportunities in your state, Stevens recommended visiting your state rural water association website. For an easy-to-find list, visit nrwa.org/state-associations.
