Educational Outreach To Develop Tomorrow's Workforce

Recognition of potential shortages of workers in all water/wastewater job classifications as the current aging workforce opts for retirement exposes major concerns and challenges for Agencies and Consultants. These shortfalls of qualified workers can include Engineers, Accountants, Operations and Maintenance Professionals, Executives, Planners, System Administrators, Laboratory Staff and others. Succession planning has received significant attention in recent years. Although ‘in-house’ development of existing staff is an essential part of such planning, this presentation focuses on the need to educate and encourage young people at the grade school level (K-12) to consider careers in the water/wastewater field through educational outreach activities. It presents the essential need for educational outreach through a creative ‘production’ play based on the 1960's television series ‘The MOD Squad’.