The DOL-certified guidelines, created in partnership with battery manufacturers, community colleges, and unions, lay out rigorous training requirements to support the skilled workforce needed in this rapidly growing industry as electric vehicle (EV) sales have quadrupled and nearly 300 new or expanded battery facilities have been announced since President Biden took office.
Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm and Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, joined Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin and UAW President Shawn Fain in Lansing, MI to announce BWI’s new Standards alongside industry, workers, educators, and students at UAW Local 652Union Hall, near the Ultium factory being constructed with support from DOE’s Loan Program Office.
The new Standards will inform BWI training materials for companies and training providers. Curricula is currently under development to support DOE’s broader efforts to deploy workforce education activities for battery manufacturing including BWI’s Pilot Training Project and the Battery Workforce Challenge (BWC) Program Regional Workforce Training (RWT) Hubs Project. DOE's National Energy Technology Lab will launch the BWI Pilot Training in April, and the Argonne National Laboratory will launch BWC’s RWT Hubs in Summer 2024.
The new Standards mark a major milestone for a national workforce strategy that enables a rapid expansion of high-quality training and education programs in advanced battery manufacturing. By facilitating upfront industry engagement and alignment, on a complete package of training materials and guidelines, the DOE-DOL collaboration speeds up DOL’s approval process for new battery training programs and provides the foundation for national credentials. The BWI materials create a clear pathway for training sponsors to leverage public funds for workforce development, meet the needs of battery manufacturers, and provide career-track pathways for workers to succeed and advance in the battery manufacturing industry.
Since 2022, BWI has convened meetings and engaged with hundreds of stakeholders representing established and emerging manufacturers, academia, and labor groups. This important engagement has enabled meaningful exchange of perspectives on current and future workforce development needs with the goal of understanding the needs of both American workers and industry.
Next on the BWI’s agenda is to look at other jobs in the battery supply chain. BWI has already started convening stakeholders working on battery-grade materials processing and recycling to map out the skills requirements for that work.
BWI’s strategic partnerships across agencies, including with the Department of Education, leverages historic investments in clean energy industries. This collaborative effort is set to increase the nation’s global competitiveness as clean energy investments drive rapid development and manufacturing across the world.