Year-Round Graduate Intern, Wind Energy Workforce Development
Job Description
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Golden, Colorado is the nation’s primary laboratory for research, development, and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. NREL emphasizes a well-integrated, interdisciplinary team approach to addressing the unique, fundamental research challenges for developing market-relevant, renewable energy technologies.
NREL’s National Wind Technology Center located at our Flatirons Campus between Golden and Boulder, CO has an immediate opening for a graduate intern to support wind energy workforce development research. The intern will work on a team who analyze workforce needs, identify education and training programs, and evaluate pathways to meet workforce development goals. The ideal candidate will be experienced in or actively researching labor economics, economic development, planning, and policy.
This position will work with the internal team supporting a variety of customers including the US Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office. They may also work collaboratively with other National Laboratories and industry partners. The minimum appointment duration is six months, but the position can be extended. During summer, the internship is full time. During the school semester, the number of work hours are reduced to account for other academic responsibilities.
More specifically, the successful candidate will support several projects including collecting workforce data by surveying and interviewing employers, education programs, and students interested in wind employment and those employed in the wind industry and contributing to original research, analysis, and written publications and sharing information within and outside of NREL.
Additionally, candidates will evaluate roles and pathways to develop the wind energy workforce. Candidates should be interested in learning more about renewable energy jobs, social science research, wind energy deployment, and working in an interdisciplinary field. They will also apply expertise and learnings to novel approaches that map workforce development and various stages of the research, development, demonstration, and deployment process across NREL. Typical tasks may include:
- Planning and executing economic and labor analyses focused on the wind energy workforce.
- Implementing qualitative research methods to interview and survey industry, education institutions, students, and the workforce.
- Forecasting workforce needs for the U.S. wind energy industry based on wind deployment scenarios.
- Using economic impact models and supporting their ongoing development and evolution in order to better inform workforce needs.
- Assisting in writing publication quality reports that analyze economic and workforce development opportunities and impacts associated with the deployment of wind energy under conditions of a clean energy transition.
Planning and executing workshops that facilitate knowledge sharing at the intersection of energy equity, workforce development, and economics impacts.
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Basic Qualifications
Must be enrolled as a full-time student in a Bachelor's, Master's or PhD degree program, or graduated in the past 12 months from an accredited institution. Internship period cannot exceed 12 months past graduation. Minimum of a 3.0 cumulative grade point average.
Please Note:
•You will need to upload official or unofficial school transcripts as part of the application process.
•If selected for position, a letter of recommendation will be required as part of the hiring process.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Prior experience applying research as well as scientific methods or frameworks for economic development and workforce assessment.
- Experience with economic analysis applied to community development
- Demonstrated desire to contribute to the literature on economic impacts, workforce needs, and energy equity in the clean energy transition. Previous experience using Excel, Tableau, or the Jobs and Economic Development Impact (JEDI) model.
- Strong interest in labor economics, energy equity or energy justice, social science research, wind energy deployment, and working in an interdisciplinary field.