Energy Workforce

Principles: DOE’s strategy to support the development, retention and advancement of the energy workforce is driven by 8 core principles. 

1. Use data: Leverage data to shape workforce investments, including on labor market demand and supply, measures of workforce development investments’ effectiveness, as well as equity and quality measures for energy jobs. 
2. Prioritize careers: Prioritize broad occupational training for careers, rather than task training for unique (sometimes short-term) jobs. 
3. Break down silos: Break down silos across the Department’s workforce efforts to avoid investing only on workforce developing geared towards specific technologies or narrow tasks. 
4. Boost capacities: Leverage, partner with, and boost the capacity of the existing workforce and education infrastructure, including union-sponsored apprenticeship, pre-apprenticeship, and labor-management partnerships, to impact job quality and equity. 
5. Incent employers’ role: Use every tool in DOE’s toolbox to incentivize employer commitment to direct hiring, retention, and career pathway strategies. 
6. Prioritize partnerships: Focus on partnerships over standalone programs. 
7. Center job quality and equity: Drive employer commitment to and investment in job quality and equity. 
8. Measure, evaluate, adjust: Choose meaningful metrics—then measure early, evaluate often, and make timely adjustments the workforce strategy to meet mission-critical goals. 

Key Activities: Shaped by these principles, DOE supports building and retaining the energy workforce through 5 areas of activities. 

1. Grow good jobs in manufacturing and energy supply chains: Buy America and domestic content provisions, coupled with investments to onshore clean energy manufacturing and supply chains, supports U.S. workers benefiting from the global transition to clean energy. 
2. Invest in workforce education and training initiatives: DOE provides financial assistance to support raising awareness of and scaling skills attainment across a wide range of occupations and industries in the energy sector.   
3. Create good jobs and scale inclusive career pathways through incentives in clean energy investments: Within DOE’s financial assistance for clean energy deployment (grants and loans), DOE strongly incentivizes commitments and plans to create good quality jobs and build inclusive opportunities for people to succeed in those jobs.  
4. Approach workforce development through high-road sectoral strategies: DOE leads and supports a variety of high road sectoral workforce strategies that advance a coordinated approach to skills, productivity, job quality, and job access.  These initiatives also advance availability and access to Registered Apprenticeship opportunities. 
5. Conduct research and analysis: DOE conducts robust research and analysis on the energy workforce, equipping stakeholders across the energy sector with vital information.