Clean Energy Insight - Moving Energy Forward

 [Approx. Read Time: 3 minutes]

“It’s the economy, stupid”, with double digit unemployment, what our economy really needs is jobs.  Nuclear energy provides thousands of Americans with stable high paying jobs.  The article below explains how new graduates from a two year program in Miami are getting great jobs before they even graduate.

Miami Dade College’s Clean Energy Institute graduates get more than a diploma; they also get a job.

BY REBECCA HUVAL

It looked like a typical graduation ceremony. But instead of anxiously wondering about finding jobs in the uncertain economy, 22 graduates of the Clean Energy Institute walked across the auditorium stage Wednesday at the Miami Dade College Wolfson campus with letters of employment in hand and white hard hats on their heads.

Thanks to the Clean Energy Institute, a joint program between Miami Dade College and Florida Power & Light, the grads will work as technicians at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant in Homestead with starting salaries of $45,000 or more after two years of college-level study and earning a $7,661 associate of science degree.

Otrebogir Urquiaga was among them. After studying engineering for five years in Cuba, Urquiaga, 39, of Hialeah, restarted his education when he moved to Miami 16 years ago. He took online courses in math and physics before applying to the Clean Energy Institute.

“Graduating from this course, you have a job,” said Urquiaga, whose two sons, 2 and 4, shouted, “Papi” as he crossed the stage. “And that’s great.”

Started in 2006, the institute is designed to educate workers to replace the aging power plant workforce. Over the next five years, 38 percent of U.S. nuclear power plant workers will become eligible for retirement, said Mitch Singer, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington, D.C.

Under the program, FPL agreed to hire at least 20 Clean Energy Institute graduates annually and promote six internal employees through the program yearly for 10 years, starting with the 2008 grads.

‘A PIPELINE’

“It’s a robust pipeline for highly skilled workers,” said James Auld, college coordinator of the nuclear division at FPL. “We take local individuals, educate them locally and then we hire them locally and they stay long-term with the company.”

The program will expand within five years to include non-licensed operators, or workers who man the controls, in addition to the mechanical, electrical and instrumentation and control skills already taught in the program.

Starting this year, the Clean Energy Institute will give graduates certificates so their work transfers to nuclear power plants beyond South Florida.

Nationwide, more power plant jobs will be created in the next decade. The Obama administration guaranteed $8.33 billion in loans for two new nuclear reactors in Georgia that would create an estimated 800 jobs.

Activists raise questions about potential dangers associated with nuclear power plants, including radiation following an accident.

But the plants don’t emit greenhouse gases, and they account for 70 percent of the U.S.’s non-emitting energy sources, Singer said.

GLAD TO HAVE JOBS

Those concerns weren’t mentioned by Wednesday’s graduates, who were said they were relieved to have jobs as plant technicians.

Urquiaga reaffirmed his career choice after he completed a required five-week internship at the Turkey Point power plant. Despite the intense heat and risks of working in a power plant, he said the internship confirmed “this is where I want to be the rest of my life.” To be admitted, students must pass an aptitude test with a 30 percent pass rate that includes math and spatial reasoning. They can request practice tests from the school. About 120 apply and 40 are admitted yearly, said Richard White, director of the school of computer and engineering technologies.

Of those who graduate, FPL chooses employees based on FBI background checks, grades in classes — such as college algebra and electronics — and how well they perform during hands-on internships at the plant.

HARD WORK PAYS OFF

Elmehdi Elaadil, 21, of Kendall, doubted whether he would get the job because he was fresh out of high school.

But Wednesday, he cradled his hard hat under his arm and celebrated his new job as a mechanical maintenance technician.

“I thought I would never make it,” said Elaadil, who moved to Miami from Casablanca, Morocco, 10 years ago. “But we all studied together at the library almost every day.”