Announcing the IEEE PES scholarship plus initiative to overcome a stark challenge: Building our power and energy engineering workforce

IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) realizes the importance of strengthening the future power engineering workforce. Surveys indicate that nearly half of the technical workforce supporting the US power industry is eligible to leave in the next five years. In anticipation of this mass workforce exit, IEEE PES has taken several proactive steps to attract and build the replacement talent which will be necessary to satisfy industry needs. This paper defines the problem, explains the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative, designed to double the pipeline of undergraduate power engineers, provides an update on the actions taken to date and closes with a call-to-action for industry to support the efforts through funding, internship opportunities and requesting mentors for award winners.