How Georgia Power creates awareness for future apprenticeships and jobs

Georgia Power, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, began operations in 1902 as the Georgia Railway and Power Company. Today, Georgia Power serves more than 2,600,000 customers and employs over 8,000 people. It’s just one of many companies in the Southern Company family of businesses that provides electric utilities to more than nine million customers nationwide.

Georgia Power uses YouScience to create awareness of its roles with high school students looking for high-demand, skilled-labor careers.

Finding the right talent is critical for Georgia Power

The greatest issue facing Georgia Power is finding and maintaining qualified workers who have the aptitudes and interest to stay on as full-time, high-demand employees. Utility companies across the country, including Georgia Power, are experiencing an employee shortage. Whether from retirements, promotions or people moving on to new companies, attrition is high and has been for the past few years.

Marilyn Walker, workforce development coordinator for Georgia Power, says, “You talk to any utility or any contractor that works in the energy utility industry and you’ll see there’s a gap.” Currently, Georgia Power is looking to fill 150 to 200 positions, with its biggest need being apprentice lineworkers.

Another challenge for Georgia Power is that today’s students often are challenged to follow processes or work outdoors or with tools. That makes identifying those students who can and want to be apprentice lineworkers, metering technicians or other skilled craft careers critical for Georgia Power.

Marilyn explains, “Those things are a challenge for us, sometimes identifying students that like to work outdoors, that want to work with their hands and with tools. That’s the biggest challenge we have. YouScience has been critical in helping us identify those students and in introducing the students to these jobs. Some of them don’t realize that these jobs or careers exist.”

Not only are students unaware these jobs exist, many of them don’t know they have the aptitudes to be successful in them.

Because Georgia Power invests a lot of time, energy and money training employees it wants to focus on candidates that have the interest and capabilities to stay with the company for years.

Employer Connections helps Georgia Power create awareness with qualified talent

Starting career exposure and awareness early, as early as pre-K, is one way Georgia Power is tackling the employment gap. Using more targeted and focused efforts in high school is another. Focused efforts like seeking out students who know they aren’t going to college but who have the aptitudes and interests to fill high-demand line positions.

Once they have the ideal candidate, Marilyn says, “We go about introducing them to the job and helping them find the training necessary to be ready to go into the job.” This is how Georgia Power builds a sustainable pipeline of talent.

“We’ve identified people that want to be in the careers we offer.
YouScience has helped us narrow that gap.
It’s helped us identify those people better.”
— Marilyn Walker, workforce development coordinator, Georgia Power

To find the ideal candidate, Georgia Power uses Employer Connections through the YouScience Platform. Employer Connections helps Georgia Power, “Create awareness with students who not only have the aptitude but actually have the interest in the jobs, or careers, we offer,” says Marilyn.

Employers Connections puts employers in front of students who’ve taken YouScience Discovery an aptitude-based career guidance assessment, or have earned Precision Exams by YouScience certifications in their field. Discovery uncovers students’ aptitudes and interests and matches them to careers they’ll find success in and employers with those careers. So, companies like Georgia Power can have confidence in the employees they’re investing in.

Employer Connections helps Georgia Power build a pipeline of future talent

Creating awareness with students that have the aptitudes and interest to pursue careers in the utility industry saves Georgia Power time, energy and money. Being on Employer Connections helps it connect with a future pipeline of qualified talent – talent with the aptitudes to succeed in the jobs it needs to fill.

Marilyn sums it up by saying, “We’ve identified people that want to be in the careers we offer. YouScience has helped us narrow that gap. It’s helped us identify those people better.”