Giving Compass' Take:

• Brookings offers steps to prepare the next generation of water workers by focusing on training, skills development, and collaboration with community partners. 

• What can we do to strengthen retainment of water employees and other infrastructure workers?

• Read about the importance of investing in water infrastructure.

Much like investing in water infrastructure, the country often overlooks the pressing need to invest in a skilled workforce to manage these systems. Nearly 1.7 million “water workers”construct, operate, and maintain water systems found in every region, whether employed in utilities, engineering firms, or other industries.

Developing these solutions, though, requires new techniques. In other words, local success depends on local innovation, ideally supported by broader regional collaborations and national investments. Building off a new “water workforce playbook” we developed through conversations with water and workforce leaders across the country, below are five steps that all types of localities can follow to accelerate their recruitment, training, and retention efforts:

  1. Train and assign staff to expand recruitment efforts. To reach younger, more diverse workers and students depends on clearly describing the nature of water work, the potential career pathways available, and the education and training needed.
  2. Account for workforce demands as part of the long-term planning and budget process. Of course, not every locality has the financial, technical, or programmatic capacity to spearhead more ambitious recruitment efforts, nor do they always know what specific types of water workers and skillsets will be necessary to develop in years to come.
  3. Collaborate with other community partners to support more proactive outreach and engagement. Pioneering new water workforce development strategies often hinges on broader regional collaborations, especially for a sector that can be highly localized and fragmented.
  4. Launch more flexible training platforms for younger and other nontraditional workers. 
  5. Support continued skills development to equip workers with needed competencies over time.

Read the full article about water workers by Joseph Kane at Brookings.