The Center for Energy Workforce Development is offering a new way for electric cooperatives to work with local educators to teach students of all ages about energy careers and help the industry develop and attract skilled workers as it faces looming shortages.

Leaders of the national nonprofit center are urging electric co-ops and other energy companies to register for EnergyConnector, a just-launched digital tool that will match businesses with local schools, starting at the elementary level and continuing through early adult education.

Companies can decide which opportunities they’d like to offer schools, said Kristie Kelley, workforce development director for CEWD, which is a consortium of energy companies and their associations—including NRECA—that are working to build a highly skilled workforce for the future.

Co-ops could offer to send employees to classrooms to talk about their jobs, provide tours of power plants or co-op headquarters, offer internships or donate lab equipment to classrooms, Kelley said.

“You get to pick and choose what best fits the needs of your organization,” she said.

Once there is a significant pool of companies registered on EnergyConnector, CEWD will open it up to educators to register later this fall. The computerized system will then match schools and companies based on their locations and teachers’ needs, Kelley said.

Once a co-op is paired with a local school, the co-op will receive an email and can begin coordinating with educators on an event or donation, she said.

CEWD would help by providing co-ops with tips on how to provide effective guest speakers or other programs. The center also has developed an extensive classroom-ready energy curriculum that educators can use.

All of this is aimed at ensuring that there is a skilled workforce to meet the energy industry’s growing demand, Kelley said.

“The U.S. energy workforce is at a breaking point,” she said. “We know there is a combination of a weak talent pipeline, outdated educational pathways and a looming wave of retirements that threaten to leave critical roles unfilled.”

Overall, the energy industry will need three times the number of workers—or about 32 million people—in the next 10 years, Kelley said.

“The silver tsunami of the energy sector is approaching,” she said. “Over the next decade, we have the potential to lose about 50% of our current workforce through retirements.”

The electric co-op industry is facing similar challenges, said Michele Rinn, senior vice president of Human Resources at NRECA and a member of CEWD’s board of directors.

NRECA data from 2024 estimated that about 18% of the co-op workforce would be eligible to retire within five years.