19257_Authority_June_2026

municipalauthorities.org │ 17 P ATHWAYS , N OT P IPELINES B UILDING 21 ST C ENTURY S KILLS T HROUGH C ONTINUOUS E DUCATION OF Y OUR W ORKFORCE Heath Edelman, PE, LO, Water & Environmental Technology Assistant Professor, Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology I t is inevitable in an industry built on pipes that we think in terms of pipelines. Water enters at one end, moves through a controlled system, and exits at the other. Predictable, linear, and finished. That is not how workforce development works. Too often, utilities and authorities approach hiring and training the same way. Recruit, hire, onboard, send staff through required certification, and assume they are “complete.” But unlike finished water, employees are never complete. The pace of regulatory change, the rise of automation and digital systems, new technologies, and the increasing complexity of infrastructure mean that a static workforce becomes a liability quickly. What is needed is not a pipeline, but a pathway, or even multiple pathways. From Pipelines to Pathways A workforce pathway is not a straight line. It is a structured but flexible system that allows employees to enter at multiple points, develop over time, and move in different directions based on both organizational need and individual capability. A lot of the water-related initiatives happened all at the same time and in the 1970s and 1980s, and we literally had to create a new workforce. Some of this thinking made sense at the time, and a pipeline was exactly what we needed back then. Nearly all employees