Starting this month, Connecticut businesses will find out what it requires to have the environmentally friendly workforce of the future.
For the past few years, the state’s job training programs have tried to create a “green-collar” workforce by focusing on areas of industry growth and casting a wide net. The reason is there really isn’t a strong idea, experts say, of what a “green” job is or what Connecticut’s companies need from green jobs.
As part of a $3.4 million federal grant the state received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Connecticut Office of Workforce Competitiveness in March is bringing in experts to meet with the state’s industries to discuss their environmentally friendly efforts, their training and what needs to be done to provide a steady flow of green collar workers.
“The ultimate goal is to make sure that the companies in Connecticut have the trained workforce that they need to meet their sustainable goals,” said Joel Simon, associate vice president for public sector services at the Chicago-based Council for Adult and Experiential Learning.
Connecticut received the $3.4 million State Energy Sector Partnership grant last year as part of a nationwide effort to grow industries focusing on environmental sustainability and energy efficiency. Through the grant, the state wants to ensure it has enough educated workers to meet the needs of those growing industries.
The problem in getting the program flowing to more job training and education is the various agencies administering the grant are having a hard time finding out what jobs will be needed and what training will be required.
“We are trying to train people for jobs that don’t exist yet and to work on technology that doesn’t exist yet,” said Tim Murney, green jobs coordinator for the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board.
While the state agencies have tried to find their way through the dark, the need for green-collar workers is growing as companies look to become more environmentally friendly and move into sustainable fields.
In 2009, Raquel Kennedy and Paul Keyes founded Victory Energy Solutions in New Britain to make homes and businesses more energy efficient. Over the past two years, the company grew from two employees to 18 and will hire more as trained workers become available.
“We grew because of the opportunity to get training funds,” Kennedy said. “I can’t emphasize enough the critical importance of training more workers in this field.”
Eemax Inc. of Oxford has been making tankless water heaters since 1988, but over the past five years, the company has doubled its revenues because of the shift toward more energy-efficient heaters. CEO Kevin Ruppelt said the company expects to double again in size in another five years.
Part of the reason Connecticut is such an attractive place to work is because of the trained workforce, Ruppelt said, and as the company grows, it will need to double its workforce from 75 employees to 150 employees.
Other states have pitched Eemax to relocate, and the company is contemplating where to expand its facilities. In addition to talking to state officials about lowering the cost of doing business, Eemax needs Connecticut to continue to have an educated workforce.
“The governor says he wants to create jobs, and we are going to give him the opportunity to work with a small, growing green company,” Ruppelt said.
For the past 10 years, the Capital Workforce Partners trained 2,300 workers through its Jobs Funnel, looking at a number of industries. The focus has intensified on green collar training for energy efficiency, construction and utilities in the past few years.
In 2011, Capital Workforce Partners will expand its offerings through the State Energy Sector Partnership to provide training for the unemployed and incumbent workers. Training will look at areas such as fuel cells, solar panels, weatherization and geothermal.
“We are casting a wide net,” said Pamela Tonell, Capital Workforce Partners green jobs coordinator.
A green job can be hard to define: For instance, a cake decorator who understands the importance of waste management may be just as much a green job as an engineer working on more efficient power systems.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which will release green job data in 2012, defines a job as green if the employee produces environmentally friendly goods or services, or makes a company’s operations more sustainable.
Rocky Hill manufacturing consultant CONNStep has its Green Collar Champion program training employees to promote maximizing energy.
“Everybody should be a green collar worker,” said Judy Wlodarczyk, CONNStep director of environment and energy. “The whole goal is to lessen the impact on the environment.”
More than just retraining existing workers, Connecticut is working toward getting high schoolers excited about sustainability and creating curriculums at its state colleges and universities to have a fully educated green collar workforce in the future.
The state’s colleges and Technical High School System deserve a lot of credit for already being at the forefront of the green job movement by offering those the necessary curriculums, said Michael Trahan, executive director for Solar Connecticut, Inc.
The state must ensure these curriculums are modified to meet the future need, Trahan said. He expects a growth in the solar industry if the state approves a credit program for renewable energy.
“We are going to go from zero to 60 in just a few months,” Trahan said. “It is going to call for more trained workers.”
Those curriculum adjustment efforts will start this month when the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning starts finding out what Connecticut companies need from a green collar workforce. The CAEL study should be complete by mid-summer.
