The Cooperative Career Essentials Program (CCEP) is a learning portfolio designed to provide the knowledge, skills and abilities every co-op employee, regardless of role or tenure, needs to best serve their co-op and members.

Within the next five years, 50% of electric cooperative CEOs and 25% of employees will be eligible to retire. The CCEP meets the needs of a changing workforce by addressing the core competencies in the Electric Cooperative Competency Model. It's important to recognize the vital role core competencies play within yourself, your team and your organization.

The core competencies addressed in the CCEP are:

In 2019 alone, more than 8,000 individuals joined the electric cooperative workforce—many new to the workforce entirely—hired for specific job roles requiring specific skill sets. These are referred to as hard skills. But every job role requires another set of skills—soft skills. They are often overlooked but play an important role in day-to-day cooperative business operations. These skills are so essential, leading business guru Seth Godin urged his blog readers to refer to them differently: “Let’s Stop Calling Them Soft Skills.”

Hard skills are teachable and measurable abilities, such as writing, reading, negotiating or the ability to use technology. By contrast, soft skills are the traits that make you a good employee, such as communication and listening, adaptability, initiative and getting along with other people. Both hard skills and soft skills are needed to be successful in the workplace.

Welcome to the CCEP learning portfolio.