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Quincy’s data centers changed more than the skyline and the City’s tax base. Over time, they also changed what was possible for a student graduating from Quincy High School. Instead of assuming that the well-paying technical jobs behind those walls would always be filled by workers recruited from somewhere else, local educators and industry partners built a pathway that could prepare Quincy students for those careers. Now, with another wave of energy and industrial development taking shape around the 98848, the organization that helped build that pathway believes it is time to do it again.
NCW Tech Alliance CEO Dr. Sue Kane appeared before the Quincy City Council to present the Future Ready Energy & Industrial Technology Pathways Project, or FREIT, a proposed four-year regional effort that would connect K-12 education, colleges, employers and industry training programs. The goal is straightforward even if the work behind it is not: identify the technical jobs Quincy and the region will need, determine what skills and credentials those employers require, and create a path that allows local students to begin preparing for those careers before they leave high school.
TL;DR
NCW Tech Alliance and its Apple STEM Network are developing the Future Ready Energy & Industrial Technology Pathways Project, a four-year effort scheduled from 2026 through 2030.
The proposed pathway would connect Quincy students with careers in energy, utilities, industrial technology and infrastructure, much as earlier regional work helped establish pathways into Quincy’s data center industry.
The program would coordinate Quincy School District career and technical education courses with colleges, industry credentials, apprenticeships and employer requirements.
NCW Tech Alliance is requesting a $50,000 total commitment from the City of Quincy over four years, not $50,000 annually. That could be paid as approximately $12,500 per year if the City chose to spread the contribution across the project.
The Port of Quincy has already made what Kane described as a significant investment in the project, and Chelan County PUD has committed funding. Additional proposals are being considered by other regional utilities.
The proposal identifies a major local opportunity: 68% of family-sustaining entry-level jobs in the region require some credential beyond high school, while only 34% of local students are currently on track to access those pathways.
Quincy-specific data included in the presentation shows 58% of students had not earned a postsecondary credential within eight years of high school graduation.
The same data shows a significant long-term earnings difference: median earnings 15 years after graduation were approximately $50,400 for graduates with only a high school diploma, $66,700 with an associate degree or certificate, and $82,900 with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
No final City funding decision was made as part of Kane’s presentation. The request before the City is for $50,000 toward the four-year project.
Quincy Has Seen This Model Before
For Quincy, perhaps the most important part of Kane’s presentation was that the concept is not entirely theoretical.
About five years ago, the Apple STEM Network began similar work involving schools, colleges and employers to prepare local students for technical careers in the region’s data centers. The process took years because creating a workforce pathway involves much more than adding a class to the high school schedule.
High school curriculum has to meet state Career and Technical Education requirements. Courses need to connect with programs at institutions such as Big Bend Community College and Wenatchee Valley College. Certificates earned by students need to mean something to employers, and employers need to communicate what skills they actually expect from someone applying for an entry-level position.
Kane told the Council that the result of that earlier work can now be seen in Quincy graduates going directly into local data center jobs.
She described former Quincy students receiving starting salaries in the $60,000 to $70,000 range. One graduate, she said, told her that in his first year out of high school he was earning more than the combined salaries of both of his parents.
That matters because when Quincy’s data center industry initially expanded, many of those workers had to be recruited from outside the area. The pathway work was designed to change that equation by giving students who were already growing up here a realistic opportunity to become qualified candidates.
The FREIT proposal asks whether Quincy can apply the same lesson before the next workforce shortage arrives.
The Jobs Are Changing Again
The economic landscape around Quincy and North Central Washington is changing quickly.
The FREIT proposal describes Quincy as being at the center of growth in data centers, energy production and industrial innovation, along with agriculture, manufacturing and healthcare. Across the broader region, Kane pointed to battery materials, hydrogen, fusion energy, gravity storage, small-cell nuclear technology and potential natural gas development among the industries creating new workforce demands.
Those projects do not all mean the same thing for Quincy, but collectively they point toward a larger shift: energy and industrial infrastructure is becoming an increasingly important source of technical employment in North Central Washington.
That is particularly relevant locally as the Port of Quincy works on major industrial and energy-related development, including projects expected to create new workforce demands later this decade. The Port has already invested in development of the FREIT pathway, according to Kane, because workforce preparation and economic development increasingly have to happen together.
There is another workforce problem developing at the same time. Kane told the Council that the median age of workers at regional public utility districts is approximately 58. As experienced employees retire, utilities will need people prepared to replace them.
If those workers cannot be found locally, employers will recruit them elsewhere.
That solves one problem while potentially adding pressure to another. Recruiting additional workers into the region increases demand for housing and other community infrastructure. Preparing people who already live in the 98848 and surrounding communities gives economic development a different possibility: some of the people benefiting from new investment can be the young people who are already growing up here.
Building a Pathway Takes Four Years
The FREIT project is scheduled to run from 2026 through 2030, with each year building on the work completed before it.
The first year would focus largely on understanding what already exists. NCW Tech Alliance plans to conduct labor-market research, interview employers and other stakeholders, map existing education and training programs and establish a core working group.
That may sound like preliminary paperwork, but it addresses one of the central problems in workforce development. A student can take a useful class without necessarily ending up with a useful pathway. The class needs to lead somewhere.
In 2027-28, the project would move toward program design, aligning high school CTE coursework with college programs, establishing dual-credit articulation and developing the sequence of courses and approvals students would need.
Employer integration becomes a major focus in 2028-29. The plan calls for agreements with utilities and other employers, alignment around the competencies they need, work-based learning opportunities and student recruitment and outreach.
By 2029-30, the proposal anticipates student pilot programs, employer-supported learning experiences and data collection to determine what is working and what needs to change.
The distinction is important. NCW Tech Alliance is not proposing to simply write a curriculum and hand it to Quincy High School.
Kane described the Alliance’s role more like a coordinator between systems that normally operate independently: schools, colleges, apprenticeships, employers and community organizations. The work includes landscape analysis, capacity mapping, partnership development, curriculum alignment, dual credit, course sequencing, outreach, recruitment, pilot programs and eventually measuring student outcomes.
Quincy School District is already part of the Apple STEM Network, and Kane said the organization has worked with the district for approximately 11 years. She also noted that Quincy’s current high school structure, with its emphasis on Career and Technical Education pathways and career advising, gives the project a foundation on which to build.
The Numbers Explain Why It Matters
Some of the strongest arguments presented to the Council were not about industries that might arrive someday. They were about what is happening to Quincy students now.
According to the labor-market snapshot included in NCW Tech Alliance’s proposal, 68% of family-sustaining entry-level jobs in the region require some form of credential beyond high school. Nearly half, 48% also require some level of STEM literacy.
Only about 34% of local students are currently on track to access those family-sustaining career pathways.
The proposal defines a family-sustaining wage locally at roughly $52,000 per year. That puts an important distinction around the conversation. This is not simply about whether a graduate can find a job. It is about whether that graduate has access to enough of the labor market to build an independent adult life here.
Quincy-specific graduate data makes that gap more visible.
Eight years after high school graduation, 58% of Quincy School District graduates represented in the data had not earned a postsecondary credential. Sixteen percent had earned an associate degree or certificate, while 26% had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Fifteen years after graduation, the median earnings associated with those paths had separated substantially. Graduates with only a high school diploma were earning a median of approximately $50,400. Those with an associate degree or certificate were at approximately $66,700, while those with a bachelor’s degree or higher were at approximately $82,900.
That is also why “postsecondary” in this discussion should not automatically be read as “four-year university.”
The pathway Kane described includes certificates, associate degrees, apprenticeships and other recognized credentials. An electrician apprenticeship, industry certificate or technical college program can fit within the same basic idea: give a student something beyond a diploma that employers recognize and that opens additional doors.
A $500,000 Regional Project and a $50,000 Request to Quincy
The entire four-year FREIT project carries a proposed budget of $500,000.
Of that amount, $320,000 is budgeted for a dedicated project management team, $100,000 for contracted services, $50,000 for outreach and engagement activities, and $30,000 for communications and reporting.
NCW Tech Alliance is not asking Quincy to carry that cost.
Kane told the Council that the Port of Quincy has already made a significant investment and agreed to help support the project if additional regional partners joined it. Chelan County PUD has also made a four-year commitment, and proposals were under consideration with other regional public utility districts.
The request to the City of Quincy is $50,000 over the entire four-year project.
That distinction prompted a clarification during the presentation.
Council members asked whether Kane was requesting $50,000 every year for four years. She said no. The total City contribution being requested is $50,000, which could be structured at approximately $12,500 per year if spread evenly across the four years.
The Council will review the request made during Kane’s presentation and consider making the investment or not.
More Than Classes: Getting Students Across the Finish Line
One Council question raised another issue that can easily get lost when communities talk about workforce development.
What happens after a student signs up?
Taking college-level technical coursework while still in high school can be a major adjustment. A pathway does little good if students enter it but do not have the resources to finish.
Kane described those resources as “wraparound supports.” Through NCW Tech Alliance, the Apple STEM Network, colleges and other community partners, that can include computers, digital literacy training, tutoring referrals, financial resources and connections to organizations helping students facing food or housing insecurity.
A Council member who also works within the school district offered a firsthand example, describing trips to Wenatchee to pick up free laptops provided through NCW Tech Alliance for Running Start students who otherwise might not have had the technology necessary to successfully complete their programs.
That part of the presentation offered an important reminder about what building a workforce actually means. It is not enough to tell a 16-year-old that a $70,000 technical career exists.
Someone has to show that student the road from here to there and then make sure there are not missing bridges along the way.
What This Means to You
For families in the 98848, the FREIT proposal could eventually mean something very practical: another set of career choices for students who want to build a good life without necessarily leaving Quincy to find it.
For some students, the right path will still be a four-year university. For others, it may be an apprenticeship, a technical certificate, a community college program or a combination of high school CTE classes and industry-recognized credentials that puts them into the workforce much sooner.
The important part is that those choices connect to real jobs.
Quincy has experienced the other version of economic development. A company arrives, jobs are created and then the community discovers that too few local residents have the specialized training needed to compete for them. Employers recruit workers from elsewhere, while local students can find themselves living next door to high-paying industries without a clear route through the front door.
The data center pathway began addressing that problem.
FREIT is an attempt to get ahead of it this time.
There is still considerable work between a City funding request in 2026 and students entering pilot programs near the end of the decade. Employers have to participate. Courses have to align. Credentials have to matter. Colleges and high schools have to coordinate. Students have to know the opportunities exist, and the jobs predicted today still have to materialize as expected.
But that is also why the work is beginning now rather than in 2029.
Preparing for the Jobs Before They Arrive
For years, one of Quincy’s economic development challenges has been making sure the growth happening around the community creates opportunities within the community.
The FREIT proposal puts that question directly in front of the City Council.
The requested $50,000 is only one piece of a much larger regional effort, and Council still has to decide whether City dollars should be part of it. But the more consequential question may be what Quincy wants its workforce to look like when the next generation of energy and industrial projects begins hiring.
The first data center workers came to Quincy because the jobs were here.
Years later, local students are graduating with a pathway that can allow them to compete for some of those same careers.
If the FREIT project works as intended, Quincy may not have to wait until the next industry is established to figure out how young people from the 98848 can participate. This time, the community has an opportunity to build the pathway while the jobs themselves are still coming into view, giving the students growing up here today a better chance to be the skilled workforce Quincy needs tomorrow.
