West Virginia Office of Energy urges apprenticeships to meet expanding energy-sector demand

Claiborne Stevens of the West Virginia Office of Energy told summit attendees that West Virginia—s energy sector currently employs tens of thousands of residents and must replace retiring workers while meeting new demand from private investment and grid modernization.

Stevens said the state faces an immediate "retirement cliff"—he estimated about 650 voluntary retirements in traditional energy industries each year—and projected an increase in demand for skilled trades that could require an additional roughly 15,000 skilled workers over the coming years. He described an Office of Energy internship program designed to expose students and early-career workers to energy careers as an essential pipeline to registered apprenticeships.

Stevens highlighted a range of emerging technical needs where apprenticeships can create tailored, employer-led training paths: battery and storage systems, substation and line maintenance, advanced HVAC for data centers, and digital skills such as AI deployment, cybersecurity and data analytics to manage an increasingly automated grid. "Apprenticeships are not charity—they are essential infrastructure," he said.

Stevens also cited private-sector investment figures during his remarks; those investment totals were described as recent administration successes and were delivered on the record by the speaker. Reporters and practitioners should treat the investment figures as speaker-sourced claims and verify them with Office of Energy materials before relying on them for budgetary or policy reporting.

Why it matters: the energy sector's scale and the combination of retirements, private investment and technology change make apprenticeship pipelines an urgent workforce strategy for employer retention and skills transfer.