Minneapolis – Feb. 13, 2025 – Each year in February, Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month is celebrated to spotlight CTE programs and the value of these programs for students of all ages. To celebrate CTE Month, CenterPoint Energy is highlighting its years-long Energy Safe Skills program with the National Energy Foundation (NEF), which is an energy safety online education program for secondary, vocational and college students available in Indiana and Minnesota.
The goal of this program is to provide safe digging education to those individuals who are pursuing careers in the utility, construction, engineering and maintenance industries, along with sharing critical information on natural gas safety. Through the program, students gain real-world insight into how to safely design, plan and work around buried utilities to help them stay safe and to prepare them for their future careers.
“At CenterPoint, safety is our most important core value, and we're pleased to be able to share safe practices that prepare our next generation in Indiana and Minnesota for careers in the utility, construction, engineering and maintenance industries," said Al Payton, CenterPoint's Vice President of Safety and Technical Training. “Through the Energy Safe Skills Program, we can create a safer tomorrow and highlight the value of safety in all activities that are completed – both at work and at home."
Available at no cost, this training includes either guided or on-demand lessons and supplementary STEM-based (science-technology-engineering-mathematics) activities that can be completed within one or two classroom sessions and incorporated into existing lessons. The curriculum covers characteristics of natural gas, natural gas leak recognition and response, the importance of contacting 811 prior to digging to have underground utilities located and best practices for safe digging.
“The biggest benefit of this program for teachers is that the interactive presentation and quiz are self-guided, which makes it easy to incorporate into a lesson plan regardless of the instructor's previous experience with the topics," said Kelly Flowers, Senior Program Director at NEF. “We have designed this training so the instructors can simply play the self-guided training for their students, or they can be more active in leading the discussion."
Instructors who use this program may be eligible for grants to help fund safety equipment and other instructional materials and supplies for their classrooms.
For more information and to learn about how to incorporate the Energy Safe Skills program into educational curriculum, visit EnergySafeSkills.org.
About CenterPoint Energy
As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.
About the National Energy Foundation
The National Energy Foundation (NEF) is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing energy literacy through the development, distribution and implementation of educational programs and materials. These resources relate primarily to energy, natural resources, energy efficiency and energy safety. Information about NEF is available at nef1.org.
For further information about the National Energy Foundation, members of the media may contact:
Kelly Flowers, National Energy Foundation, 801-327-9500 ext.118.
