Issued on: August 13, 2003
DOE's Office of Fossil Energy Selects Two Schools For Career Intern Program
Objective is to Develop a "Pipeline" of Future Employees
Washington, DC - The Department of Energy has named the Colorado School of Mines and Penn State University as the first two educational institutions to participate in its new Technical Career Intern Program.
DOE's Office of Fossil Energy is initiating this program to recruit highly qualified students from the nation's top earth sciences and engineering universities for internships in fossil energy programs and for employment once they graduate.
In announcing the selections, DOE's Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Mike Smith said, "The Office of Fossil Energy is challenged with several key missions that respond to the concerns of Americans over the quality of their environment and cost of their future energy supplies. We have begun initiatives to develop a new generation of clean coal technologies, to study exciting new approaches for capturing and storing carbon dioxide, and to find ways to tap oil and natural gas that is currently beyond the reach of conventional technology."
The objective of the Technical Career Intern Program is to develop a number of highly-rated schools which could provide a "pipeline" of future employees for the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy.
Under the Technical Career Intern Program, graduates would be hired with government commitments to:
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provide extensive training in fossil energy technologies,
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pay up to $40,000 of their student loans, and
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pay for optional masters programs in earth sciences or engineering at one of the participating schools while the new employees continue working part time and receiving their full salary.
These incentives are being included in the program so that the Office of Fossil Energy will be able to attract and hire the very best graduates to continue its research programs. Without such incentives, it will be difficult for government to compete with private industry recruiters.
In choosing the first two schools for the pilot program, meetings were held with 18 learning institutions from across the United States. The initial implementation period is anticipated to last up to 36 months. Recruitment of student interns will begin in the spring of 2004 through Fossil Energy participation in career fairs, assignment of student advocates within the universities, etc. After the pilot program is well underway, it is anticipated that additional schools will be included.
Smith pointed out that two-thirds of Fossil Energy's staff are eligible to retire within the next four years, creating an urgent need to develop a means of attracting graduates into service with the federal government. "To fulfill our missions we must plan for replacement of scientists and engineers who are leaving and need to attract some of the best graduates from highly-rated schools in the areas of earth sciences and engineering."
The new program is an expansion of the Office of Fossil Energy's intern opportunities. The Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship, which is composed of three internship programs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Americans, and Tribal Colleges and Universities), concluded its eighth annual summer session August 8 in Houston, TX, with 41 students making presentations about work they conducted and attending a Leadership Forum designed to help prepare them for the workplace.
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