This is not just a TVA issue, but an industrywide issue. The next 40 years won't be like the past 40 years. Our job was to develop a strategy to take this into consideration. Skills required for Electricians, Boilermakers, Steamfitters and Machinists are more technical than ever before. For example, Machinists today are expected to use laser technology and advanced vibration-monitoring equipment that didn't exist 10 years ago.
Computers are important too.
The future workforce will need strong educational backgrounds because of the changing technology. The Environmental Training and Safety Training Sub Peer Teams concentrated on required coursework. Many of the courses have been standardized and are ready to be rolled out. We have 59 courses that will be standardized throughout TVA and 25 that are business-unit specific. It will automatically load this information into the Automated Training Information System.