Natural Gas Boot Camps

MEA, in partnership with the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD), offers natural gas boot camp programs to potential new hires. The boot camp is a basic introduction to the gas distribution business.

Utilities may partner with a local community college to offer a Natural Gas Boot Camp for the classroom, shop, and outdoor training areas. They may use instructors or their own technical training staff to deliver a pre-packaged curriculum of training, tests, and evaluations related to the operation and maintenance of a natural gas system. The program content comes from the library of online courses developed by MEA in conjunction with many gas utilities.

Over a period of 8-12 weeks, boot campers will have online access to prerequisite materials in preparation for classroom instruction covering 46+ tasks. In addition, they will be given 46 written exams to test their knowledge, and approximately 35 hands-on evaluations to test their skill and ability to perform the tasks. Participation in boot camps allows companies to give potential or current employees knowledge and skills that can more quickly turn them into contributing employees. Additionally, the program also trains partnering schools how to use the learning management system and how to adapt the online training for use in a blended-environment.

The Natural Gas Boot Camp program helps transition people from outside the industry, providing a base set of knowledge and skills and speeding up the overall learning process. This helps ensure that the utility is hiring people that are interested in being in the energy industry, and able to gauge a potential employee’s level of interest and understanding before they’re hired.

We see this as a valuable opportunity and we are here to help you pilot a Natural Gas Boot Camp in your service territory. The initiative in Michigan with Consumers Energy (CMS), Detroit Edison (DTE) is particularly exciting, as these organizations have recruited veterans, clearly recognizing that we need to get veterans back in the workforce by assisting them in their transition to a new career.