Workforce Development & Planning Resources

• The Importance of an Operator in a Community’s Water Systems
  This video was produced to help leaders and decision-makers of systems understand what they need in an operator and what an operator does on a daily basis.
• Certification Calculator App
  Calculates time earned for actual work and equivalent experience for water and wastewater specialists.
• Brochures for Recruiting Drinking Water and Wastewater Operators
  Two brochures that can be used in the recruitment of drinking water and wastewater operators. The brochures encourage those who are entering the workforce or those looking for a career change to consider a job in drinking water/wastewater operations.
• What Does It Take to Be an Operator?
  This video can be shown to encourage people to enter the field, including high school and college students, including those at community colleges.
• MAP: Basic Operator Math Workshop
  This document teaches basic operator math.
• EPA: Water Sector Workforce
  This page includes several products and other policy documents EPA has developed on water workforce topics as well as links to other documents developed by various partners across the water sector including other federal agencies, professional water associations, utilities, Tribes, and states.
• Brookings Institute: Renewing the Water Workforce
  The report emphasizes that modernizing the country’s water systems and approaches to workforce development offers scalable lessons for other infrastructure sectors.
• National Rural Water Association: Apprenticeship Program
  The NRWA Apprenticeship Program has provided the guidelines to states that lays a firm foundation for the apprentices to thrive upon completion. With little to no-cost, apprentices will attend an approximate 2-year training program through a State Association.
• WSU Environmental Finance Center: Work in Water Program
  This unique, hands-on learning program allows students to see first-hand the skills, technology, and people that are working to ensure the public has access to safe, healthy drinking water and water recycling resources.
• AWWA: Workforce
  Workforce strategies include building resources to help attract, recruit, train, and retain talented and skilled employees and best practices for succession planning.
• Work for Water
  Resources to find jobs or prepare for rewarding careers in protecting public health and the environment.
• Baywork
  Resources about jobs in the water sector including job descriptions, profiles of current water sector employees, and videos about working in water.

RCAP Educational Program Materials

• Webinar: Continuing to Serve: How to Recruit Retiring Military Personnel into the Water Sector
  This webinar explored how skills learned in the military can be an ideal fit for drinking water systems, while utility work can be an ideal fit for veterans transitioning back to civilian life. The webinar also described the process of how retiring military personnel find new jobs and offered practical advice for water systems to get their job postings in the hands of veterans.