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Inaugural awardees of the AGA Scholarship talk about the impact of the scholarship and the valuable lessons they’ve already learned from the natural gas industry. BY ERIC JOHNSON

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When the American Gas Association hosted the 17th International Conference

& Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas in April 2013, the association made a bold commitment to help bring new workers to the industry by announcing a scholarship program aimed at increasing the number of young people entering energy-related fields.

The announcement came at a critical time.

In 2011, a Center for Energy Workforce Development survey found that over the next decade, almost 62 percent of the industry has the potential to retire or leave for other reasons. Not only will their departure leave a large gap of qualified workers, but the intellectual capital they’re taking with them will be lost if not passed on.

Using proceeds from LNG 17, the AGA Scholarship program is partnering with 27 colleges and tech schools to provide $1 million in funding that over

five years is anticipated to help more than 200 students transition into these newly opened roles.

“The good news is that we have a more positive outlook than we did in 2006 when we first started tracking the age distribu-tion and retirement forecasts in the utility industry,” said Lori Traweek, AGA’s senior vice president and chief operating officer.

“According to the latest CEWD survey, where before we were looking at significant potential retirements and a much lower number of employees in the 25- to 38-year-old range, the percentage of forecasted retirements has decreased as the percentage of younger workers has increased. That being said, across the electric and gas industry, 46 percent of skilled craft workers and engineers may need to be replaced in the next 10 years, so we still have to be very focused on addressing and developing a skilled future workforce.”

Greater PotentialScholarship recipient Andrew Landry has seen the generation disparity firsthand. In fact, the University of Houston graduate, who took a job as a draft engineer with

CenterPoint Energy Inc., says the oppor-tunity for advancement is one of the reasons he became interested in the natural gas industry.

“They’ve hired a lot of new, younger engineers,” he said. “You don’t necessarily see too many engineers who are mid-career, so you hope for that potential to move up when the time comes, because you’ll have the experience when those other people retire.”

Landry, who interned with CenterPoint while in school, learned about the scholar-ship from his undergraduate advisor at just the right time.

“I had some money saved up going into college, but it was starting to run thin,” he said. “When I received this scholarship, it helped me to not have to worry about money that last year so I could focus on schooling. It was a huge blessing because I didn’t have to take out any student loans.”

According to Traweek, the reception to the scholarship from the industry has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Particularly appreciated was the fact that, although we did provide a few scholar-ships for large, well-recognized engineering colleges and universities, we focused on the community colleges and vocational schools—the schools where a small scholar-ship can go a long way in helping students graduate with a certificate or a degree that can result in the most-needed jobs in the gas utility industry: technicians, pipefitters, welders and the like.”

Hands-On TrainingFor Tanner Dvorak, who earned his technical diploma in gas utility construc-tion and service from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the scholarship allowed him to make a career out of being in the field.

“I’ve always been a hands-on type of person,” he said. “I worked construction growing up, and I had an older friend who went through gas utility training who was excited about the fact it was something we were always going to need. So I figured

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The AGA Scholarship helped Andrew Landry land a job as a draft engineer at CenterPoint Energy following graduation.

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I’d look into it since it was working with my hands, and I figured the fact that it was going to provide me with a job for a long, long time to come was a good thing, too.”

Dvorak spent two years in college on a soccer scholarship before an injury sent him to the gas utility construction and service program at NWTC. The coursework was rigorous, and the AGA Scholarship helped him flourish.

“It was very intense,” he said. “You were taking tests every day and the material was just getting thrown at you, so the scholar-ship really gave me the ability not to have to worry about making money to pay for school. I could just sit down and study and focus on being one of the top in my class.”

And distinguishing himself proved important. With so many potential hires separated by so little, he says being at the top of his class allowed him to impress the recruiters at Madison Gas and Electric Co., which hired him right out of school.

As a service technician, he works on making changes to gas meters as well as installing industrial regulation for hotels and businesses going up in the Madison, Wisconsin area. In addition, he works as a first responder, pinpointing reported gas leaks and assessing their severity.

No matter the type of call he’s on, Dvorak said he wouldn’t change a thing.

“This is definitely going to be a career for me,” he said. “I like the hands-on work, I like the industry and I like the fact that things are always changing and that there’s so much stuff to learn. I’m really happy with my choices and where they took me.”

“The Last Job I’ll Ever Have” Equally happy with his choice to enter the gas industry is Dwight Martin, who

was one of the first two Marshalltown Community College students to graduate from the Iowa college’s new, two-year utility technician program.

“It’s a new beginning for me,” said Martin, who was recently hired as a gas technician by MidAmerican Energy Co.

“This will be the last job I ever have.”Martin had tried college right out of

high school but found his heart wasn’t in it, so he entered the working world, only

WANT TOP STUDENTS? LOOK NO FURTHER

Another valuable conduit for highly skilled career and technical students is the National Technical Honor Society, a nonprofit educational honor society founded in 1984 to recognize and honor America’s top-achieving career and technical students.

With members and alumni numbering over 250,000, the NTHS not only awards scholarships and promotes excellence in career and technical education, but it also works with business and industry to build greater career opportunities for its members, including partnering with companies and organizations like the American Gas Association and the Center for Energy Workforce Development to position America’s top-achieving technical students on the radar screen for jobs in energy production and distribution.

Many students in career and technical education, including those who have received the AGA Scholarship, have the opportunity to be associated with the NTHS. Approximately 60 percent of NTHS members are enrolled in secondary career-tech programs, and 40 percent are enrolled in postsecondary technical schools and colleges. Sixty percent are female.

For more information, visit the NTHS website at www.nths.org. —E.J.

According to Tanner Dvorak, the scholarship helped him flourish and earn a job at Madison Gas and Electric Co. as a service technician.

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to find he yearned for more, even after inheriting his father’s commercial lawn care business.

“I heard about the utility tech program at MCC, so I checked it out,” he said.

“And I also had some lineman friends who were with Alliant Energy, and they told me it was a great field.”

You’re outside, they told him. You work with your hands. And you make good money.

“Everybody I talked to had 20-plus years in the business,” he said. “They

were old-timers, and they all said they wouldn’t change a thing.”

As someone who values experience, Martin was particularly pleased with the instruction he was given at MCC, where each of the two primary instructors had more than 40 years of field experience.

“My teacher on the gas side, Ron Estabrook, started back in the 1960s when his first job was hand-digging holes,” Martin said. “He told us his first friend was a shovel, but he worked his way up the ranks and then retired before the school recruited him to teach.”

That kind of experience is key to training a new workforce, Martin says, and it’s obvious the industry understands it.

“The utilities have really helped out a bunch at the school,” he said.

“MidAmerican is a huge donor to the program, as is Alliant and Black Hills Energy. I think they want their future employees to go through the best training possible before they hire them.”

Though he had the lawn care business to fall back on, he still found the scholar-ship important. Entering into a two-year program where he was often in class for eight hours a day put a strain on his finances, but the scholarship allowed him to continue.

Now, he’s eager to begin his career with MidAmerican Energy.

“I wish the utility tech program had been around when I was getting out of high school,” he said. “I would have taken that immediately, and I would already have had 15 to 18 years at a utility.”

And those 15 to 18 years would have put him closer to what he’s discovered is his ultimate goal: giving back to the program that gave him his opportunity.

When it comes time for him to retire, he’d like to return to Marshalltown Community College as an instructor.

Industry of OpportunitiesAccording to Traweek, stories like this demonstrate that the emphasis on education has been a success.

“Trying to ensure that students are aware of the opportunities in the industry, making sure that they know what skills they need and then working with specific schools to provide those skills has been a focus of the industry, and it is starting to pay off,” Traweek said. “Whether it is as a result of state energy consortiums, the work of the CEWD or individual companies part-nering with schools in their areas, we are beginning to see an increase in schools that have the curriculum needed to graduate students with the right skills, and the number of students in those programs is on the rise.”

When Andrew Landry, the University of Houston graduate, thinks back over his journey to his new career at CenterPoint Energy, he appreciates all the help and advice he’s received along the way, especially the nudge given by his brother, who works for Chevron Corp. “He told me, ‘Hey—this is a good field to go into,’” Landry said. “And he was right.”

And now, as a recipient of the AGA Scholarship, he says he’s in a position to give that same advice himself.

“For me, the scholarship was a huge blessing and is something I encourage people to look into and explore,” he said.

“And then explore the energy sector as a whole, because it really is a good field to go into. It’s something that’s always going to be around.” u

“For me, the scholarship was a huge blessing and is something I encourage people to look into and explore. And then explore the energy sector as a whole, because it really is a good field to go into. It’s something that’s always going to be around.”

—Andrew Landry, scholarship recipient and University of Houston graduate

The scholarship helped gas technician Dwight Martin gain the experience he needed to change careers.

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