The statistics are frightening: The average age of wastewater utility workers is 45.4, and in the next 10 years, an estimated 31 percent of all workers in the field will retire. The figures are similar in the water utility sector.
That means the nation’s water and wastewater treatment plants will soon face a shortage of qualified people. To address that issue, the Water Environment Federation and the American Water Works Association have launched a “Work for Water” campaign to stir up interest in careers in the industry. They’re targeting four groups:
• High school and vocational/technical school students.
• College students.
• Former military service members and career changers.
• People pursuing advanced degrees.
The campaign is brand new — it officially launched in May. But already it has led to connections with entities from the U.S. EPA and the Veterans Administration to a number of colleges and universities.
Under the tagline, “Great Careers for a Great Cause,” the program encourages people in a wide age range to consider the water and wastewater sector for challenging, stable, well-paid careers that make a big difference to society and the earth.
To learn more about the campaign, Treatment Plant Operator interviewed Linda Kelly, managing director of communications for WEF, and Jeanette Brown, executive director of the Stamford (Conn.) Water Pollution Control Authority and new president of the WEF Board of Trustees.
TPO:
How did the “Work for Water” program come about as a collaborative effort between the two associations?
Kelly:
At WEF, we stay close to our members and listen to their needs. In recent years we began to sense a bit of fear about how fast our workforce was aging. As a variety of demographic studies began to coalesce, our Board of Trustees realized that when members of the Baby Boom generation retire in the next 10 to 15 years, the workforce shortage could become very acute.
The board decided the issue was important enough to justify forming a task force. Among that task force’s key observations was that this is not just a wastewater and WEF issue. It spreads across all water jobs. They recommended we partner with AWWA and put together a program that would get young people interested in careers in water.
TPO:
Do you see any change today in the receptiveness of younger people to careers in the water sector?
Kelly:
Yes. Ten, 15 or 20 years ago, when careers in electronics and other new fields were beginning to arrive, young people were looking for a quick win — for a way to get out there and make money quickly. Frankly, water and wastewater didn’t have the same sex appeal that the new careers were offering. We didn’t see young people getting into water. We didn’t see them going into engineering schools.
Now we see the tables turning. We see that young people care very much about this planet. They care very much about sustainability. It’s beginning to swing back to where young people want a job where they can do something truly important, and there’s no job that’s more important than taking care of the precious and very limited resource that is water.
TPO:
How are WEF and AWWA sharing resources and responsibility in executing this campaign?
Kelly:
Last year’s WEF president Rebecca West met with AWWA president Craig Woolard. They created a joint task force of five people from each organization.
They tasked Greg Kail, AWWA senior public affairs manager, and me, and our staffs, with execution. Greg and I split up the duties. Because of AWWA’s resources in graphic design and creating collateral materials, Greg took on that area, and they created the logo.
Given my experience with IT and the Web, I took charge of the campaign Web site, www.workforwater.org. We worked with the two organizations’ committees to identify Web site content that would reflect the goals of the program. We met those goals head-on. It’s an attractive site, and we believe it’s also quite appealing to younger people.
TPO:
As a practical matter, how would someone working for a city or a water or wastewater utility make use of this Web site?
Brown:
Managers at most treatment plants do a lot of outreach to school systems. Here in Stamford, we give tours to more than 2,000 students every year. One thing we want to do next year for middle school and high school students is have them look at the Web site and then talk to them about careers in wastewater treatment. Then when they take tours, we can show them on a practical basis what they would do in those roles.
Next year I intend to have one of our mechanics, one of our operators, and one of our lab scientists break the students into groups and talk to them about what they do on a daily basis.
I also see value for general recruiting of people beyond high school. For example, every year I get invited to career development seminars with people who are out of work and looking for where they can go now that their job has moved away. That’s another good opportunity to use the “Work for Water” campaign.
I also teach a wastewater design course at Manhattan College, and as part of that I try to encourage students to go into operations. I see a huge value to this Web site in supplementing everything we do to encourage people to come into the water field, and to explain the fun and the joy and the rewards you get out of it.
TPO:
What sorts of partnerships are developing around this campaign?
Kelly:
The U.S. EPA wanted very much to be a partner because they also recognize the need to bring new people into the world of water. They got in on the ground floor. They worked with us to develop the video that starts as soon as someone visits the Web site home page.
AWWA initiated contact with the Veterans Administration, knowing the VA is very interested in getting this information in front of veterans who are returning to civilian life. The EPA actually facilitated our contact with the VA. As we and our partners begin to network, we’re seeing a lot of interest. We welcome everyone who has a relevant role to jump on the wagon and provide additional means of outreach.
TPO:
What is your approach to reaching high school students with your messages?
Kelly:
We wanted to make sure we showed them the depth and breadth of opportunity. One thing we do is list the job descriptions and all the opportunities that are out there. In the introductory video, we hit that with visuals, audio and narrative. In addition, from working with high school counselors, we see that they don’t know enough about opportunities in the water sector. So one of our goals is to get information to them so that they can tell a student, “Here’s another way to go.”
TPO:
How does your approach differ when attracting college students?
Kelly:
We know they are very interested in scholarships. The WEF Member Associations and AWWA sections have scholarships, and we’re collecting information on those. We want to act as a clearinghouse for scholarships for students who want to explore careers in water.
We also want to help them get involved in student chapters of AWWA and WEF and network with other young people trying to find the right spot in the water sector. We have some established relationships with chapters at universities. We want to prepare professors to talk to students and direct them to careers in water.
One of our next initiatives is to find our way into all the college venues. How do we get to the community colleges that have water or wastewater programs and help them steer people toward operations and maintenance and lab work? If a community college doesn’t have a program, how can we help them start one?
TPO:
Why are former military people an important audience?
Kelly:
We’ve seen that a lot of people leaving the military or retiring from the service at a young age have skills that are readily applicable to many of the jobs in water. We want to be sure they realize that this may be a great second career for them — a chance to take those skills they learned in their military careers and apply them.
TPO:
Why is it important to reach students pursuing advanced degrees in the sciences?
Kelly:
We really need people to go on beyond a bachelor’s degree and get into research for the future. Water issues are very complicated and getting more so. For example, if we’re talking about microconstituents and pharmaceuticals in water, and the potential impacts, those are very important topics. We need young people to put their minds to work and help secure the future of clean water.
Brown:
When you look at all the potential careers associated with water, there is something for anybody who has any kind of interest whatsoever in science, engineering, mechanics, electronics or instrumentation. It’s just a question of getting the information out there and getting young people, veterans, and people who are changing careers to see all the good things about working in this incredible profession.
TPO:
How well does stability of jobs in water resonate in today’s economy?
Brown:
We’ve seen interest among people who have been laid off from other jobs. We recently hired three people who had been out of work from other jobs for a considerable time. One thing we asked them was why they were applying, and a lot of it was because they felt there was stability in the wastewater field. It wasn’t simply that city jobs are stable, because they’ve seen cities laying off people. But they saw stability in the wastewater area.
TPO:
How would you characterize the reaction to “Work for Water” so far?
Kelly:
It has been remarkable. One thing we’ve discovered is a fifth audience: water professionals themselves. We’ve often heard members say, “What can you give me so that when I go to a career fair or take kids on a tour, I can guide them to the jobs?”
In the Resources for the Water Professional section of the Web site, we put a lot of that information, so our people don’t have to reinvent the wheel when they’re figuring out how to attract students, or how to put recruitment, retention or succession planning processes in place. That has been extremely popular.
Our water professionals are the champions. They are the ones in the community. They are the ones who will take this program forward in mass numbers. We want to make sure they have the tools they need.
TPO:
If you can have your way, where will the “Work for Water” program be in a year from now?
Kelly:
We took the first plunge quickly and got a great deal done right up front. Now we need to go back to our campaign to-do list and start checking off those items. We want to firm up and establish partnerships with lots of universities and with government agencies: EPA, VA, perhaps the Department of Education.
We want kids to be able to quickly find the information they need. To that end, we want to get closer to the top of Google and Yahoo! We need to invest in search engine optimization, so when people search for a career in water, we come up first. For now, it’s simply great that WEF and AWWA could come together as the two big water organizations and do this.
