The U.S. Hydro industry is probably in the same shape...
Laid off at GM? Hydro's hiring
25,000 engineers and skilled tradespeople needed in next six years
Tyler Hamilton
Energy Reporter
Ontario's auto sector may be shedding jobs by the thousands, but the country's big power utilities can't hire skilled workers fast enough.
Canada's electricity sector needs to hire 25,000 engineers and skilled trades people within the next six years to keep the country's power system safely and reliably humming, according to a report released yesterday by the Electricity Sector Council.
"They're starting to go out the door faster than we're bringing them in," said Catherine Cottingham, executive director of the government-funded organization that monitors human-resource trends in the sector. "The mid-level roles will feel the biggest crunch."
About 1,300 positions will need to be filled every year for the next three years, after which the numbers rise dramatically. Within the next four years alone 29 per cent of the workforce is expected to retire.
It's a demographic trend hitting every industry but the electricity sector is particularly vulnerable because of the specialized nature of the work, especially jobs in the nuclear and transmission sides of the business. The report said the rate of retirement of transmission system workers is expected to jump more than sevenfold next year and ninefold by 2012.
"You can't just hire a person on Friday and put them on the job on Monday," said David O'Brien, president of Toronto Hydro Corp. "It takes about four years for us to train a new recruit, so you can put them up on a (hydro) pole to work alone without killing themselves."
Toronto Hydro, where the average worker is 49, has asked the province's electricity regulator for a rate hike that would allow the company to accelerate recruitment and training.
Hydro One CEO Laura Formusa, in a speech earlier this year, said "We are grappling with one of the single greatest human resource challenges our industry has ever confronted," as the transmission system giant expects 30 per cent of its workforce to retire within the next few years.
Ontario Power Generation, which operates nuclear, hydroelectric, and fossil fuel power plants, sees 25 per cent of its workforce needing replacement by 2012.
All this, while Toronto Hydro will lose about a third of its 1,600 workers in five years.
The council said the industry must to do a better job promoting itself as a career path at a time when enrolment in electrical engineering programs is falling and competition for skills from other industries is rising. This is includes working more closely with post-secondary institutions to develop programs relevant to the sector.
An emphasis on recruiting foreign-trained workers and underemployed groups, such as women and visible minorities, would also help alleviate the crunch, it said.
Linda McRae, OPG vice-president of corporate human resources, said the industry needs to look more closely at how workers from other struggling sectors, such as automotive, can move to the power sector.
"It makes perfect sense," she said, "though it doesn't mean you can pull someone from GM and have them working for OPG tomorrow."
But O'Brien said the potential is there. "It's what we should all be sitting down and talking about. Is there a strategy that can get these industries working together?"
Laid off at GM? Hydro's hiring
25,000 engineers and skilled tradespeople needed in next six years
Tyler Hamilton
Energy Reporter
Ontario's auto sector may be shedding jobs by the thousands, but the country's big power utilities can't hire skilled workers fast enough.
Canada's electricity sector needs to hire 25,000 engineers and skilled trades people within the next six years to keep the country's power system safely and reliably humming, according to a report released yesterday by the Electricity Sector Council.
"They're starting to go out the door faster than we're bringing them in," said Catherine Cottingham, executive director of the government-funded organization that monitors human-resource trends in the sector. "The mid-level roles will feel the biggest crunch."
About 1,300 positions will need to be filled every year for the next three years, after which the numbers rise dramatically. Within the next four years alone 29 per cent of the workforce is expected to retire.
It's a demographic trend hitting every industry but the electricity sector is particularly vulnerable because of the specialized nature of the work, especially jobs in the nuclear and transmission sides of the business. The report said the rate of retirement of transmission system workers is expected to jump more than sevenfold next year and ninefold by 2012.
"You can't just hire a person on Friday and put them on the job on Monday," said David O'Brien, president of Toronto Hydro Corp. "It takes about four years for us to train a new recruit, so you can put them up on a (hydro) pole to work alone without killing themselves."
Toronto Hydro, where the average worker is 49, has asked the province's electricity regulator for a rate hike that would allow the company to accelerate recruitment and training.
Hydro One CEO Laura Formusa, in a speech earlier this year, said "We are grappling with one of the single greatest human resource challenges our industry has ever confronted," as the transmission system giant expects 30 per cent of its workforce to retire within the next few years.
Ontario Power Generation, which operates nuclear, hydroelectric, and fossil fuel power plants, sees 25 per cent of its workforce needing replacement by 2012.
All this, while Toronto Hydro will lose about a third of its 1,600 workers in five years.
The council said the industry must to do a better job promoting itself as a career path at a time when enrolment in electrical engineering programs is falling and competition for skills from other industries is rising. This is includes working more closely with post-secondary institutions to develop programs relevant to the sector.
An emphasis on recruiting foreign-trained workers and underemployed groups, such as women and visible minorities, would also help alleviate the crunch, it said.
Linda McRae, OPG vice-president of corporate human resources, said the industry needs to look more closely at how workers from other struggling sectors, such as automotive, can move to the power sector.
"It makes perfect sense," she said, "though it doesn't mean you can pull someone from GM and have them working for OPG tomorrow."
But O'Brien said the potential is there. "It's what we should all be sitting down and talking about. Is there a strategy that can get these industries working together?"