A Few Words on Training -- and Starting Young
We should all be exploring different opportunities for our employees to advance in their water-related careers. This starts by talking to our first-year water operators and trying to get them started with learning basic operation skills. We know how rewarding it is to learn new procedures over the years and to be able to share this information with others.
This discussion should also include how to get young people involved. A suggestion might be having school field days at our water plants and wastewater treatment facilities. Being able to spend time with young people and showing them how our facilities work may pay dividends later on.
We need to keep talking with our educators to encourage class time associated with water operations. We could start with young students at a very young age by having them draw and color pictures of what water means to them. It would be ideal if our educators would continue the discussion of water-related projects with students through their high school years. School projects involving clean water should be encouraged.
Hopefully we can get support for a two-year associate's degree for basic water operations and move towards a four-year degree for more advanced study for those choosing future careers in our water industry.
