DPA hopes to bolster Navajo workforce

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It doesn't hurt to be ready - at least that is Diné Power Authority's standpoint.

The Desert Rock Power Plant is far from a reality at this point, but DPA, the Navajo enterprise in charge of the project, is rolling out a pre-apprenticeship program to help prepare Navajos for the jobs it could bring.

On July 27 DPA held a kickoff feast at the Nenahnezad Chapter House with its partners in the program, Navajo Workforce Development and The Bridge Indian Training Trust Fund.

The idea is to train Navajos - there will be 20 in the first class - to become skilled craftsman so there will be a Navajo workforce ready if and when Desert Rock wins approval to begin construction.

The program will teach participants basic building trades, reading and mathematics, and how to manage their time and personal finances.

Once they complete the six-week program, participants will have a foundation for the building trades and can decide which one to pursue.

Steven Begay, DPA general manager, said the need for skilled Navajo workers is evident.

The tribe's population of skilled trade workers is aging and not many young Navajos are stepping up to take their place, making for an environment in which Desert Rock might have to go outside for skilled labor.

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Begay and DPA are waiting for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to approve the plant's air quality permit and environmental impact statement, and once that's done, Desert Rock will be ready to start building.

Meanwhile, he said, they are laying the groundwork to fulfill the project's promise to transform economic conditions in the Shiprock area.

The project will create over a thousand construction jobs and several hundred permanent jobs.

"We can't wait," he said. "We need to address the concerns of the community."

Begay hopes to disprove critics who predict Desert Rock will end up hiring non-Navajo workers to fill the high-paying jobs, as has sometimes happened in past large-scale construction projects.

"Some people say, 'You won't hire my kids, you just bring in a bunch of bilagáanas,'" he said. "We want to have something in place so that doesn't happen."

For Ron Curtis and the Navajo Nation's Department of Workforce Development, partnership in the program stems from concern about replenishing an important sector of the workforce - skilled trade workers.

The U.S. Department of Labor has suggested that its grantees (like Workforce Development) implement training programs, he said.

"There are many Navajos working for the unions, but the union workforce is aging quickly," said Curtis, senior management analyst. "We need to replace the union workforce with qualified trainees, but not many young Navajos are going into it."

Part of the problem could be that many Navajos approach construction as something to do part time when other work isn't available, said Albert Shirley, DPA spokesman.

He hopes the training program puts participants in the mindset that a building trades job is a full career, and not "a two-paycheck job."

And beyond Desert Rock? Renewable energy, a growth industry that DPA has been criticized for not pursuing, is growing rapidly. The same skills will be needed there, Begay said.

"A welder can weld a green tower as well as a turbine," he said.