Held by the Department of Energy, the Energy Facilities Contractor Group (EFCOG), and the Energy Communities Alliance, the Oak Ridge Regional Workforce Development Roundtable marked the fourth such event at a DOE Office of Environmental Management site since 2022. Previous workshops took place at DOE-EM’s Los Alamos, Savannah River, and Hanford sites. Another event is planned for DOE-EM’s Idaho Cleanup Project next year.
During the Oak Ridge event, participants shared their perspectives on good practices to boost hiring. They also raised awareness of some of the lesser-known challenges related to attracting employees, DOE-EM said.
“We have 70 miles of greenways, a beautiful city, great shopping, great restaurants, and some of the best schools in the country, but you heard today the thing that we lack is housing,” said Randy Hemann, Oak Ridge city manager. “If we get the housing stock, we’ll get the people. They want to live here.”
Highlights: OREM, DOE cleanup contractor UCOR, and labor representatives kicked off the roundtable discussion by sharing the skills and competencies needed to maintain a workforce of more than 2,500 employees to advance Oak Ridge’s cleanup mission.
The discussion then shifted to education. Partners representing K-12, community colleges, and four-year institutions took to the microphone to discuss today’s classrooms and the most successful approaches to engage students.
“We use the phrase, ‘Our students can’t be what they can’t see.’ We need to know what’s out there and what’s available so we can develop those pathways,” said Bruce Borchers, superintendent of Oak Ridge schools. “We have invited industry partners in for conversations about what are the jobs they need and how can we provide a pathway.”
Hemann told the roundtable participants that more conversations as a community are needed to solve the problems. “I’m happy to see DOE working in that manner and listening and bringing out these conversations in communities,” he said.
The initiative: According to the ECA, the ECA-EFCOG-DOE-EM Workforce Initiative grew from a discussion between former DOE-EM senior advisor William “Ike” White and other DOE-EM leaders during the ECA Board Meeting at the 2022 Waste Management conference in Phoenix, Ariz.
The discussion underscored the importance of documenting future hiring needs and attracting potential employees to the communities near DOE-EM sites, DOE-EM said.
The ECA is a member organization that brings together local government officials in DOE-impacted communities to share information, establish policy positions, and advocate community interests to effectively address environmental, regulatory, and economic development needs.
Since the initial 2022 meeting in Phoenix, the initiative has led to several engagements with DOE contractor leadership and a data compilation of hiring needs for each site’s 5-year projections broken out by technical specialty, along with the on-site workshops, the ECA said.
According to DOE-EM, the workshops are helping the office identify and remove impediments as the program works to expand its workforce as a large percentage of employees approach retirement eligibility.
