About the Alaska Energy Careers site
In Spring 2006, Sitka Works was awarded a High Growth Job Training Initiative grant through the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, to fund the Sitka Energy Project. The main goal of this six-month project is to raise awareness, and educate Sitka’s high school students, their teachers, and parents about the exciting jobs available in energy-related industries such as construction, mining, oil and gas, and transportation.
There are several components to our project, with objectives that include:
- Developing a network of representatives of high growth industries and statewide training entities who are willing and able to participate in educating Sitka’s students, teachers and parents. Students at all three high schools will be impacted – Sitka High School, Mt. Edgecumbe High School and Pacific High School.
- Increasing awareness of energy careers - through posters at the high schools, the Sitka Energy Project website, presentations by industry and training representatives at the high schools, presentations by project staff at public meetings, interviews on radio and television, and personal contacts. The website is designed as a steppingstone for Sitka youth – launching them from the familiar to the unknown. It features young people who graduated from one of our local schools and then went on to enter a career in an energy industry.
- Educating high school youth about energy careers - through the Energy Career Camp for MEHS students (August 20-26), classroom visits by industry and training representatives, an Energy Night, a tour of Juneau energy facilities for Pacific High School students, a new AutoCAD class at Sitka High School in spring 2007, and work experiences, job shadowing, or mentorships with local experts.
- Educating high school teachers and counselors – through classroom visits by industry and training representatives, a 3-day tour of energy facilities in Anchorage for four Sitka High teachers, and AutoCAD training for two SHS teachers.
- Developing new energy-related curriculum for high schools students as a result of the AutoCAD training and the Anchorage tour.
Energy Career Camp participants touring the new Sitka Auditorium
Who’s Responsible?
By Sheila Finkenbinder, Director
Sitka Works!
We’ve heard a lot about energy in the news lately. Here in Sitka, it only takes a bird to stop the electricity from traveling from the hydroelectric plant into our computers, lights, cash registers, stoves - all the things we count on to get our jobs done and keep our lives running smoothly. Further away, it only takes a little sand, salt, or bacteria to corrode the massive pipelines that carry oil from Prudhoe Bay to the rest of the country. If the oil stops, the ramifications to the nation’s economy are huge.
How quickly the supply of energy can be threatened or shut off, and we are all inconvenienced by the lack of power to run our lives. Most of us sit by and wait for someone else to fix the problem. Depending on the severity of the situation, we may just relax instead of working on a report, we may holler and blame, or we may actively look for ways to save the lives that are threatened by the situation. But, most of us don’t do anything to fix the situation.
However, there are a bunch of folks who spend their days making sure that energy supplies are available and affordable for all of us to use. These individuals could be considered some of today’s heroes. These are the men and women who don’t mind doing dirty, and sometimes dangerous things, on a daily basis, so that we can all live comfortably and worry-free. In fact, most of them really enjoy their jobs.
The Sitka Energy Project, at Sitka Works, has a mission of raising the awareness among Sitka’s high school students, as well as their parents and teachers, of the many jobs in energy-related industries that can be exciting, critically important, and often financially rewarding.
The young lady in the photo is a Corrosion Engineer with Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. Her name is Tawna Beer, and she is a 1998 Sitka High School graduate. With a Bachelor of Science degree and several certifications through the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE), Tawna has a challenging and rewarding career that is critical to the nation’s power supply and economy. Most of her training has been in the field and on the job. An entry-level position like hers could pay at least $50,000 annually, with “lots of opportunity to grow at a fast pace”, as Tawna stated.
Many very good jobs in energy-related industries do not require college degrees. These could include jobs in construction, mining, oil and gas, transportation, and yes, hydroelectric and other alternative sources of energy. As a matter of fact, many of the folks who work at things like building, installing, repairing, exploring, processing, or transporting, got those jobs through short-term training and on-the-job experience. The salaries that people working in the trades earn often rival, or often surpass, those earned by many college graduates. Please understand, there’s nothing wrong with getting a college education. In fact, it can often move you further up the ladder, faster, depending on your career area. However, a college degree also comes with a heavy price tag, in the form of student loans that can take years to pay back. Alternatively, many types of technical, hands-on training in the trades can pay off for a young person in a hurry.
Over the next few months, we will be encouraging Sitka’s high school students to explore some of the rich variety of jobs that are available in energy industries, many of which can be achieved even if the student isn’t ready, willing or able to attend college right away. We hope that the parents of those students will be listening too.
On-going support for Alaska Energy Careers is provided by
- committed to Alaska's next generation of workers.© 2006 Sitka Energy Project. A project of Sitka Works!
This project was funded by a grant awarded under the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative,
as implemented by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration
and the State of Alaska,
Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
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Revised:
July 25, 2008 3:19 PM
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