Hiring and retaining excellent operators remains a challenge for drinking water and clean-water utilities. An excellent way to meet it is through registered apprenticeships.
For six years, the National Rural Water Association has offered such apprenticeships, delivered through its state affiliates. NRWA provides guidelines to the states that lay a solid foundation for apprentices to thrive during their training and in the careers that follow.
Apprentices go through what is typically a two-year program. From classroom instruction and on-the-job training, they acquire the tools they need to become successful water or wastewater operations specialists. They earn while they learn under the mentorship of experienced staff at treatment facilities.
Those who complete apprenticeships enjoy a wide range of career prospects across the country, with no student loans to repay. Utilities benefit from access to skilled professionals ready to be strong contributors to daily operations.
Shannan Walton, NRWA director of workforce development, notes that for many utilities, apprenticeships represent a change from the classical emphasis on licensing and certification alone for training and developing newly minted operators. Walton, who has worked on registered apprenticeships for 26 years, talked about the NRWA program and its value in an interview with Treatment Plant Operator.
TPO: What is the background of the NRWA Apprenticeship Program?
Walton: In 2016 the NRWA leaders began researching registered apprenticeships under the U.S. Department of Labor. They attended an apprenticeship accelerator event where panelists from other industries talked about how they were successful using registered apprenticeship as a training model. In 2017 NRWA worked with the Department of Labor to develop National Guideline Standards of Apprenticeship. The intent was to provide technical assistance for state affiliates to take those national standards and modify them for adoption locally.
TPO: What were the core objectives of the apprenticeship program?
Walton: The hope was that training people in a systematic and structured way would help advance professionalism in the industry and eventually advance the wages operators would be paid in the rural communities. Essential to this was to develop a program where every apprentice across the nation would get the same type of training no matter what type of system they were in, as opposed to licensing requirements, which differ greatly from state to state.
Traditionally, our industry has focused a great deal of training on test preparation, studying to pass a test. On the other hand, the purpose of apprenticeships is to create foundational training. We’re trying to accomplish something that other industries have been using for more than 80 years. It means changing a mindset, and it’s not going to happen overnight.
TPO: How would this structured program improve professionalism across the industry?
Walton: Our leadership believed that if rural America was to be ground zero for training, and if the new operators would eventually move on to larger systems able to pay better, then they should be trained well from the beginning. In that way we would create a constant pool of talent to help utilities replace people being lost to higher-paying jobs, or to retirement.
TPO: In basic terms, what do the apprenticeships include?
Walton: It is a two-year program in which the apprentices receive 4,000 hours of on-the-job training with a mentor from the utility, and 144 hours of related technical instruction — essentially classroom work — per year.
TPO: How well was the apprenticeship program received by state rural water associations?
Walton: It received approval from the Department of Labor in July 2017 and, astoundingly to everyone, there was immediate buy-in from several state rural water associations. We started with five states that were interested at the very beginning. Today we have active programs in 36 states, and we’re developing the Standards of Apprenticeship in three others.
TPO: What do you believe might be holding the other 11 states back?
Walton: One concern is employer buy-in. An apprenticeship program can be a heavy life for a rural utility. In the construction trades, employers of apprentices are for-profit businesses. Our employers are municipalities in which taxpayer dollars fund everything. A utility in a state where an operator needs only one year of experience and 60 hours of continuing education to take a licensing test might question why they should invest in a much more extensive program.
TPO: Why are apprenticeships of particular value for rural utilities?
Walton: It begins with recruitment: finding people from rural communities and explaining to them what the occupation is, that it’s a viable pathway into a career. It’s telling them they can provide a service to their community. It’s also about setting up a succession plan for operators planning to retire. Instead of having that person with all the institutional knowledge just walk out the door, they can position themselves with an apprentice being trained under that mentor. Then they’re set up for succession when that experienced person leaves.
TPO: What is the benefit of recruiting apprentices versus already-certified people?
Walton: When utilities are looking for people who are already licensed operators — if they keep doing what I call HR cannibalism — they’re not doing anything to secure the future of the industry. So instead of saying they need a 100% proficient operator who already has a license, they can change their mindset to finding someone who starts with about 50% of the necessary skills, and then training them.
TPO: How many people have been trained through the apprenticeships since inception?
Walton: As of last Dec. 31, we had 517 apprentices registered in the program, and 219 had completed apprenticeships. The numbers of applicants demonstrate the success of our outreach. In 2021-22, we had 620 applicants in our system. In 2022-23 we had 1,724.
TPO: How do the NRWA and state affiliates promote the apprenticeships?
Walton: Each state rural water association has an apprenticeship coordinator. They and NRWA provide training webinars for employers. We start out with a kind of registered apprenticeships 101, going through basics and building out from there. All the coordinators travel around their state talking to employers. They also promote the program through their annual conferences and through partnerships with state workforce service offices and community-based organizations.
TPO: How much flexibility do the state affiliates and local utilities have in structuring apprenticeships?
Walton: State programs have some flexibility in what the 4,000 hours of on-the-job training consists of, and there is some flexibility in the technical instruction. States also can decide whether licensing is required as a part of the apprenticeship, or is additional expectation on the part of the employer.
TPO: What specific competencies are apprentices expected to acquire?
Walton: The 4,000 hours are broken down into five basic categories, and mentors receive an outline of approximately how much time they need to spend with the apprentices in those specific work processes. The five areas are tools, equipment and workplace safety; vehicles and special equipment; systems operation and maintenance; quality control; and logistics, reports and supervision.
TPO: Where do apprentices receive their classroom instruction?
Walton: It varies from state to state. Some state programs have their own instructors. In some states the technical instruction is 100% face-to-face, instructor-led. In some states it’s blended between instructor-led and online self-paced self-study. Some states use instructor-led online training. It’s a mix.
TPO: Does the NRWA itself provide resources for the technical education?
Walton: We offer a learning management system called Water Pro Academy. We also offer a mix of courses to our state associations. Early on we developed a memorandum of understanding with the California State University, Sacramento, Office of Water Programs, under which we make their study materials available to instructors and apprentices.
TPO: How do apprentices, mentors and NRWA track progress in the program?
Walton: We have a phone app where the apprentices can report in real time what processes they are working through. They track those 4,000 hours, and the information is automatically uploaded into our system. Their mentors can go in and validate that, and they can also provide monthly evaluations of the apprentices. What is working? What is not working? Is the apprentice struggling in class? Do they need extra help?
TPO: Are there any special requirements of utilities that take on apprentices?
Walton: The way registered apprenticeship is structured, it is meant to work as a system. Success happens when everybody involved treats the apprenticeship differently from what they have always done before. The employer has to appreciate that registered apprenticeship is a different approach from relying on licensing and certification. Applying all of it as a system in practice is what makes it successful.
TPO: What would you tell leaders of rural utilities about the value of apprenticeships?
Walton: I would first ask what the issues are with their workforce. Do they have a succession plan? Are they able to retain people? Is it hard to find new talent? And I would point out how apprenticeships can be a solution to all that. There are great opportunities in this industry in rewarding, pay-it-forward-to-your community kinds of occupations.
