strategies and initiatives

CEWD has been leading the energy industry’s response to critical workforce development priorities since 2006.  While the issues and demands have changed over the last decade and a half, our primary goal has remained the same: to ensure a skilled, diverse energy talent pipeline.

CEWD is committed to:

Strengthening awareness and promoting the merits of 21st-century clean energy careers

We are doing so by:

• Participating in national events and programs that increase awareness of energy careers to veterans, career-ready adults, and students and their influencers
• Sponsoring the Troops to Energy Jobs initiative to welcome more veterans (and military spouses) into employment in the energy sector
• Telling the industry’s workforce story to media outlets across the country
• Creating sharable resources for companies to use to promote energy careers
• Seeking industry support for a large-scale, multi-year messaging campaign that will provide greater visibility for energy careers.

Supporting the development of more diverse, equitable, and inclusive energy workplaces

We are doing so by:

• Created the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Roadmap for Industry Change to provide the education, resources, and support identified in the industry action plan
• Hosting the DE&I Forum for the industry’s DE&I leaders
• Partnering with the National Urban League on the Urban Energy Jobs Program to increase diversity in the energy workforce through pre-apprenticeship training programs that prepare people for success in Registered Apprenticeship Programs
• Collecting diversity metrics to better evaluate industry action and forward progress
• Nurturing partnerships with organizations that can support a diverse talent funnel and create meaningful, action-focused initiatives with these organizations that support systemically-marginalized groups

Supporting companies developing employees in increasingly technical and dynamic energy careers

We are doing so by:

• Released the re-imagined Energy Industry Fundamentals Program in September 2023 to support 500,000 students completing the energy education curriculum
• Hosting energy skills convening between educators and energy companies to discuss preparing students for skills for energy jobs of the future
• Assessing the creation of a universal Associate Degree for energy careers
• Evaluating the feasibility of shared curriculum within industry

Supporting the industry’s workforce development professionals with the tools and resources they need to lead their company’s efforts

We are doing so by:

• Hosting the annual Workforce Development Summit, a national educational forum for information and idea exchange
• Conducting the bi-annual Gaps in the Energy Workforce Report to measure employment, hiring demand, attrition, and retirements within the industry
• Sharing information on key workforce policies
• Providing industry leadership on critical workforce development conversations through thinktank like convenings
• Uniting industry peers for virtual networking opportunities
• Supporting practitioners’ use of newly created resource tools such as the Strategic Workforce Planning Report, the Natural Gas Utility Workforce in a Decarbonizing World, etc.