SKILL PANEL REPORT California's Water Industry - Cuyamaca ...

SKILL PANEL REPORT California’s Water Industry3HOW TO TRAINCALIFORNIA’S NEXT GENERATIONOF WATER INDUSTRY WORKERSPanelFindingsIssues• Baby Boomer retirements• Training the next generation of workersRecommendations• Develop water industry skill panels• Develop water industry career pathwaysComments“We can’t herd a bunch of people intothe pipeline but not build the bridges towhat the industry needs. Where shouldwe invest?”“We want to target the smartest and beststudents for our industry”“We would do better collaboratively.”The Baby BoomersThe coming wave of Boomer retirements is often referred to as the SilverTsunami, an apt metaphor given the devastating impact on organizationalknowledge predicted when it hits. Boomers make up 51% of the country’smanagers and 49% of professionals, and when they retire, decades of jobspecific knowledge and organizational memory will go with them. 2Like other companies and industries, California's water and wastewater utilitieswill be hit hard. The Centers of Excellence, which provide labor market researchfor the California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce DevelopmentProgram, surveyed water and wastewater utilities in Southern California in 2011and found that 3,400 system operators, mechanics, electricians and instrumenttechnicians would be eligible for retirement by 2014. 3However, if that many workers are leaving, why can't community college studentsfind job openings at water and wastewater utilities? That was the question askedby panelists Corine Doughty, Deborah Mann and Mollie Smith, who manage thewater technology programs at Santiago Canyon Community College in OrangeCounty, Solano College in the Bay Area, and Palomar College in the San Diegoarea. This was the first of many let’s get to the point questions posed by thepanel over the one and a half day discussion.2011 Centersof ExcellenceReport7