Native Energy Workforce Education Consortium (NEWEC)

Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute and Haskell Indian Nations University collaborating to create new opportunities for students Published January 03, 2023
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Native Energy Workforce Education Consortium (NEWEC) 

Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) and Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) will create a Tribal college and university (TCU) Consortium to center Native education on energy issues.  

The Native Energy Workforce Education Consortium (NEWEC) will serve Indigenous Peoples of the U.S.: American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN), Native Hawaiians, American Samoans, Puerto Rico, and Indigenous Peoples of the U.S. Pacific Island territories.  

The Consortium will establish a 12-member national Tribal advisory board to guide that development to ensure special attention is given to the appropriate Tribal cultural context of NEWEC regional and national program and course offerings.  The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) will provide support to NEWEC within the consortium structure.  

Curriculum  

NEWEC will offer science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education that is academically rigorous, taught within a real-world context, and accessible to students of all experience and academic backgrounds and will be firmly grounded in our rich Tribal traditions of sustainability and resilience, and meet Tribal needs. 

NEWEC will train AI/AN and Indigenous students to work in the energy industry. It will build a sustainable, scalable infrastructure around NEWEC which is dedicated to the energy workforce education of AI/AN and Indigenous People in the U.S. NEWEC will focus on:

  • Tribally contextualized / Industry endorsed open educational resources and curricula (OER);
  • Enhancing certificate and degree attainment;
  • The development of occupational pathways to careers with wages that will sustain families and communities;Engaging high road employers to become knowledgeable and equipped to provide careers that respect Tribal values and obligations;
  • Leveraging industry partnerships to develop energy sovereignty on Tribal lands including green occupations, and the creation of sustainable, profitable enterprises that pay wages that will sustain families; and 
  • Strengthening alliances between Tribal communities and public workforce agencies through development of public/private/labor partnerships.

NEWEC will directly address disparities in enrollment rates for AI/AN American students, women, students with disabilities, with respect to STEM programs that have high employment or educational outcomes.

  • Disparities in completion rates with respect to STEM programs and credential attainment for these students.
  • The gap in job placement rates and/or earnings for these students in specific career pathways.
  • Disparities in dropout/resignation rates at critical points along a career pathway.
  • Disparities in the percentage of students participating in work-based learning programs.

NEWEC will create Acelerated Career Pathways 

  • Offering high-quality career pathways with specific focus on the energy sector, by incorporating the needs and hiring opportunities of employers within this sector.
  • Partnering with public state and local workforce development boards.
  • Stacked and latticed credentials. 
  • Competency-based education and assessment using an outcomes-oriented approach in to assess and certify student mastery of learning outcomes. 
  • Credit for prior learning and prior learning assessments. 
  • Integrated education and career-focused training programs that offer accelerated and contextualized remediation.
  • Dual enrollment for secondary and postsecondary pathway programs. 
  • Improved comprehensive and personalized student support services and career guidance. 
  • Use of online and distance learning and advanced training technologies for rapid feedback and adaptive learning. 

By joining together to create the NEWEC, SIPI and Haskell will signal to prospective students, Tribal leaders, government, and industry that they are committed to excellence in energy education firmly grounded in their educational traditions.  SIPI and Haskell envision opening the consortium to other Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) as the consortium matures.

Partners

  • Bismarck State College
  • Blackfeet Community College
  • CAEL (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning)
  • Dominion Energy
  • NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
  • NextEra Energy
  • Northwest Indian College (NWIC)
  • Salish Kootenai College

Contacts:

Angela Lucas, CAEL    alucas@cael.org 

Valerie Montoya, SIPI   Valerie.Montoya@bie.edu

Dr. Daniel Wildcat, Haskell   dwildcat@haskell.edu

Stephanie Bostwick, NREL    Stephanie.Bostwick@nrel.gov

William Lohr, SIPI Board of Regents office    william.lohr@sipibor.com