Haven't had a chance to review the meeting minutes from our February 4, 2015 kick-off meeting? Feel free to review so that you are aware of all the great discussions we had.

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COLORADO ENERGY WORKFORCE CONSORTIUM
KICK OFF MEETING MINUTES
FEBRUARY 4, 2015
Welcome and Introductions
Mike King from Xcel Energy greeted the attendees with his personal introduction, fire safety
guidelines and other room logistics. He then invited each guest to introduce themselves additionally
noting the Stakeholder list being circulated for updates.
Purpose of the Consortium
Jonathan Liepe from Colorado Springs Utilities led the discussion on the purpose of the
Consortia and work accomplished thus far. Jonathan explained that the Consortia began approximately
4 years ago with a small team who was looking at the utility industry and how to staff it moving forward.
The team, by industry partner, reviewed what our current workforce gaps are and what we
should do together to close those gaps. We discussed how we need to partner and not work individually
towards the same goals. Discussion also ensued among the industry partners on how we should
structure the consortia. The industry partners also acknowledged they need to gather workforce
demand data on a statewide perspective.
CEWD facilitated the meeting and shared other national consortium success in getting industry
leaders together with community colleges to build appropriate feeder pools. Our consortium goal is to
re-energize our workforce analysis and increase involvement. We want to build a pipeline within
secondary and post-secondary programs.
The college partners pledged support and reviewed the current curricula and how do we get the
talent out of the school system. Mike Womochil from the CO Community College System was
instrumental in helping us to develop this curriculum. Mike Womochil added comments that it has been
a challenge to enroll students in the curriculum. Mike and others benchmarked the PG&E energy
program when they built the current curriculum. Mike works with seven schools along the front range
on energy programs. Jonathan Liepe made the comment that the utility industry is in the bottom 3 for
graduating engineers to pursue a career in.
National Perspective
Rosa Schmidt (CEWD) explained to the group that the Energy field is not even part of the career
cluster in many states. It happens to be in Colorado, which is very positive. CEWD has taken a hard look
at the national data and in the next 10 years the Utility Industry will lose half of its work force. She
stressed we all need to work together to solve workforce development problems together. Rosa then
provided insight into the CEWD mission (see presentation) and that is providing local solutions to the
energy industry through regional collaboration (consortium). There are currently 38 consortia’s across

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the U.S. so far. She noted that 47% of Engineers will need to be replaced within the next 10 years. She
inquired from the Industry partners if their replacement rate is one for one; It is not. It boils down to
having the right people at the right time to fill our jobs.
Discussion then followed about recruiting military veterans for our openings. Companies can
give credit for prior learning and experience, not just for military experience, but it’s a great place to
start.
Balancing Supply & Demand (see presentation, slide 32). Key slide for all to review and apply to
our current organization.
Rose then reviewed how we would build a strategic plan (see presentation, slides 33-37).
 Business Strategy
 Workforce Analytics and what are the gaps
 Develop plan
 Execute metrics
We then had a detailed conversation with the educator group about key “pre-hire
requirements” they need from the industry leaders when they are hiring. Just a certificate or associates
degree isn’t enough to get hired, additional requirements need to be satisfied. An example we discussed
was how critical a clean driving record is to employers. Tuffy Lawsen spoke to us about trying to
convince his young students that there’s more to employment than just a diploma, and they don’t seem
to get it since it is coming from a teacher. If industry leaders provided clearer expectations (like a word
document) that he could post it would go much further than anything he can say or do (see
presentation, slide 38). Ray Kelly (CEWD) provided information about clean driving records for those
who must have a CDL to do their job, once hired.
Rosa also posed to the group that we have not included Contractors in our meetings and should
we invite them to the table. As the Larger contractors utilize some of the same skills and graduates from
the CEWC programs, something for us to all think about as we move forward.
Mike Womochil stressed that we need to see the replacement information so the educators can
understand the need. There needs to be a direct correlation between enrollment and positions
available. Elda DeLaPena injected that the educator needs to see the delineated educational
requirements for these critical positions that will be hired. Educators stressed that they need to
understand what the industry needs are so we can prepare the students properly.
Energy Industry Needs / Utility Partner Overview
Industry overviews presented by Colorado Springs Utilities, Xcel Energy, Tri-State Generation
and Black Hills Energy. See attached slides (39-78) for information / statistics presented. Q&A session
followed after each presenter. Rosa Schmidt (CEWD) touched upon Diversity in non-traditional jobs.
Jonathan Liepe stated that his company looks to represent their customer base in their strategy. Also
Jonathan stressed utilizing opportunities within LinkedIn and other professional diversity organization.

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We then exchanged comments regarding what we have heard so far and what the gaps are. How can
the consortia help us in the short term and long term? Rosa really stressed that on their website there
are many, many tools that can assist us so we do not need to reinvent the wheel. We need to work as a
team to build a strategic plan.
Department of Labor Update
We learned that the Colorado Department of Labor (DOL) can provide many services to
employers not exclusive to labor and market information. There are 9 workforce regions and 70
locations within the state of Colorado. Employment services include job fairs, virtual job fairs and local
economy based support activities. There are 40,000+ long term unemployed job seekers in the state of
Colorado currently. We as employers need to remember that we should not “kick out” those who have
been without work for a long period of time with our employment opportunity websites.
We learned about the Colorado Talent Pipeline report. The report includes data from past /
present / and future workforce needs. All legislators have this data. If we need more data, the center
can gather what we need. And it is critical that the DOL have the underlying competencies for our jobs.
What would also be beneficial is a skill panel process. Top 10 critical occupations, ability to fill, turnover
rate and how critical is it to the bottom line.
Industry leaders were urged to utilize their local workforce centers. Key also is educating
parents on the opportunities within the Utility Industry. Some parents know nothing about the
opportunities or are negative towards them. A common theme is “utility jobs are not sexy”. We also
had an informative discussion on teacher’s externships and had some real life examples. Also critical to
attract and retain is realistic job videos of those in the utility industry. YouTube is a great resource to
post those videos. Rosa mentioned getintoenergy.com, the career pathways tab, for job videos if
industry leaders do not have the budget to film their own.
State Level Education Update
Nancy McCallin from the CO Community College System stated there are many community
colleges within Colorado and even in our smaller locations such as Victor and Rocky Ford, CO that we
should partner with. It is critical that we get high school counselors involved; they can be one of our
best “voices” yet they seldom mention the Energy Sector when talking to students. We need to prepare
career paths information and share them with counselors (also available on the CEWD website). The
Community College system is dedicated to working with local businesses on career paths. For example,
there are many business advisory committees across CO and utility leaders need to get involved. She
gave an example of how the Community College system provided customized training to Vestas in
Pueblo and CenturyLink.
Nancy also discussed the inventory of positions available vs. how many students are in the
classroom currently. There is a lot of capacity to train but the chairs in the classrooms are not filled.
Only exception is the welding program. The electrical program is less than at capacity. She gave an
example of 82 seats filled while there are 247 seats available. We have the capacity (empty seats) but

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the interest is not there. Key is that we have to attract more students into this field. Industry leaders
need to get into the middle schools and high schools to spread the word. Industry leaders need to work
on getting the word out, getting students excited and marketing these jobs and doing some customized
training. Nancy also stressed to the attendees that we also have to consider the cost of teaching
technical classes.
SWOT Analysis – see attached
Wrap Up / Action Items
 Rosa urged all attendees to really take a look at the www.cewd.org website. Remember that
they can bring many tools to us and we don’t have to reinvent solutions for many of the goals of
this group.
 Nancy Zimmer requested a map targeting the employment needs by region so we can look at
geographic solutions to our job needs.
 HireforColorado.com is another website that we should become familiar with.
 We should all be working with our local workforce centers. Don’t delay and establish that
partnership if it is not established already. Recommend who should attend the next consortium
meeting.
 Displaying realistic job videos on our corporate websites. If that’s not possible, refer interested
parties to www.getintoenergy.com.
 Powerupcolorado.org is another website we should all review.
 Request Governor Hickenlooper to sign a proclamation for Careers in Energy Week. The Co-
Chairs should request help and support from Rep. Angela Williams.
 Jonathan wrapped up the meeting stating we need to form an Executive Steering Committee
(ESC) and sub committees. ESC is currently searching for an Executive Sponsor from the
Industry. Lastly, Jonathan Liepe is currently the co-chair and the ESC will be appointing
someone to fill this position.
Next meeting is April 15th
from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Location to be determined.
Respectfully submitted by,
Lynn Burton

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