The U.S. is building renewable energy faster than ever. Every new wind farm, solar array, and battery site will need engineers and skilled workers to make it happen. So where will these future problem-solvers come from?

In a special report for Energy Global entitled “Fail to prepare; prepare to fail,” our Executive Director Megan Barrett tackles that question. Her answer: preparing students to become engineers starts in high school, long before students go to college — let alone fill out a job application.

Energy employers are already having trouble finding the people they need. Meanwhile, plenty of students write off engineering before they’ve ever met an engineer or seen what the work actually looks like.

Our hands-on engineering labs have taught us that students engage when they see how engineering connects to real-world problems and how much room there is for creative thinking in solving them. Give students a reason, like building a wind turbine in our Renewable Energy Lab and testing whether it works, and the math starts to matter. Add a practicing engineer to the conversation, and students see engineering for what it is: collaborative work that makes a difference.

That’s the heart of what Engineering Tomorrow does. We open the door to engineering for students who might not otherwise get the chance, preparing them to take on the challenges ahead, in the energy industry and beyond.

Read Megan’s full article in Energy Global here →