Career pathways

Amidst a rapid transformation in the energy industry, PG&E is focused on developing a workforce with the skills and expertise to meet our customer needs while operating safely.

Our approach

We take a multi-pronged approach to developing our talent within PG&E. Through our talent identification efforts, robust training offerings at PG&E Academy, and targeted efforts at building workforce pipelines such as PowerPathway™, PG&E remains poised to have the talent needed to meet the evolving needs of our business.

We provide our coworkers a range of technical training on the knowledge and skills required to perform their jobs safely using approved tools and work procedures. These courses help prepare our workforce as we integrate new technologies, systems, and processes into our operations.

We have California state-certified apprenticeship programs for 39 apprentice job classifications. These apprenticeships provide specialized on-the-job training in conjunction with formal instructor-led and web-based training to eligible, union-represented coworkers who wish to become certified in a particular trade. Upon completion of a PG&E apprenticeship program, coworkers are eligible for certification by the state of California.

Consistent with PG&E’s commitment to ensuring all coworkers are qualified to perform their assigned tasks over the duration of their careers, PG&E also offers a range of technical skill-refresher and coworker-development courses. We use a cross-functional approach to identify training needs, involving PG&E’s training professionals, operational and safety leaders, and union partners to make sure we prioritize the right training based on documented skill gaps and safety trends.

In addition, PG&E’s long-term strategic planning includes coworker and leadership development, as well as succession planning.

Careers through PowerPathway

PG&E’s PowerPathway program continues to play a central role in our workforce development strategy by providing training for careers in gas, electric, customer service, and vegetation management.

Created in 2008, PowerPathway targets those who are out of work or under-employed. In 2024, PowerPathway celebrated its 17^th year and delivered six signature programs for our hometowns in the Central Valley, North Coast, Bay Area, and Sacramento North Valley.

PowerPathway held:

Three Entry to Traffic Control programs, which placed 68 graduates at PG&E as traffic control flaggers.
One Entry to Electric Operations program, which placed 22 graduates at PG&E as line workers, cable splicers, and electricians.
Two Entry to Vegetation Management programs, which placed 29 graduates at PG&E as vegetation management inspectors.

Since inception, PowerPathway has delivered 61 signature workforce development programs throughout our service area, resulting in about 1,360 graduates. About 86% of graduates have been placed in careers at PG&E and the construction-energy industry, with 69% of graduates self-identifying as minorities, 43% as military veterans, and 12% as women.

2024 milestones

Training:

Established training alignment committee for Engineers and Scientists of California (ESC) coworkers to better meet the training needs of these represented coworkers, building on committees for our gas and electric frontline coworkers.
Expanded hands-on training to refresh skills for journey-level coworkers. This included grounding refresher training and controller training for more than 1,900 electric operations coworkers and an excavation safety training update for 2,100 gas, electric, and other coworkers in the field.
Piloted hands-on training for frontline supervisors and field safety specialists to provide tools to identify potential safety hazards on the job and provide meaningful safety coaching and recognition of frontline coworkers.

Career pathways:

Recruited more than 100 summer interns from 40 universities with majors in STEM.

Measuring progress

We encourage our employees to develop their skills by exploring new opportunities within PG&E. We also attract new talent to build our expertise in critical areas.

By promoting health, wellness, professional development, teamwork, and an ability to perform well for our customers, we achieve stability and a low voluntary turnover rate—4.0% in 2024.

As part of our continuing commitment to our coworkers, PG&E delivered more than 1.3 million hours of technical, leadership, and coworker training in 2024:

~962,000 hours of instructor-led training.
~18,400 hours of training via our virtual learning courses.
~152,000 hours of training focused on leadership and employee development.
~200,600 hours of training as part of an apprenticeship or other formal technical training program.

To measure success, coworkers who participate complete surveys and provide feedback on how much the training has increased their knowledge. For courses that teach technical skills or reinforce skills that involve high-consequence tasks, every coworker is required to pass an assessment that covers both knowledge and skills gained. Additionally, for select trainings, we perform field observations of tasks that coworkers were trained on in the months following their training to determine if the training has had an impact on job performance.

At PG&E Academy, our in-house organization charged with enhancing coworkers’ skills and qualifications, we ask coworkers to rate their ability to use on-the-job training. In 2024, training effectiveness was 4.64, exceeding our goal.

Training effectiveness

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