Community Colleges take the lead in training the first generation of green collar workers.

By Angeline Huang Evans

Nearly 20 years in the military and 10 years in residential construction had taken a toll on Lyle Sisk’s body. Hoping to ease the burden of such back breaking work, Sisk took a job at a commercial construction firm. The relief was short lived. He was laid off after only one year. So, at age 56, Sisk joined the 8.5 million unemployed individuals in the United States. As Sisk sat in his local Employment Development Department office, he was intrigued by a poster advertising a training program for energy auditors, hazardous materials technicians, solar panel installers, and environmental auditors. Thanks to that poster, less than six months after being laid off, Sisk became certified for jobs in the solar and environmental industries. Lyle Sisk has gone green.

Green Collar 101
Green collar jobs create opportunities. They require less than a bachelor’s degree, provide a living wage, benefits, and opportunities for career advancement, and many include manual labor. Energy, alternative fuels, green building, alternative transportation, and agriculture are the major green industries poised for growth. New jobs in these industries look a lot like traditional jobs, but are updated with new green technology, equipment, and standards.

In 2007, Congress passed the Green Jobs Act, which earmarked $125 million in federal funds to train 35,000 green collar workers each year. Of that, $25 million will train those from low-income communities and $80 million will help transition workers into green industries. California has aimed even higher with its Global Warming Solutions Act, which aims to reduce carbon emissions by 25% by 2020.

To that end, California’s green companies are on the hunt for qualified employees, and many have turned to community colleges, the traditional educator of California’s skilled workforce. Community colleges are responding with training programs and industry partnerships that provide a way for low-income individuals to earn a living wage while pursuing an education and supporting a family.

With a little extra training, people like Sisk are the perfect candidates for emerging green collar jobs. Researchers estimate that green industries could create up to 3 million jobs nationwide over the next 10 years. Not only will jobs crop up in new industries, but traditional industries are going green and looking for new workers, especially as baby boomers approach retirement.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), California’s largest natural gas and electric utility, is one company seeing green. Van Ton-Quinlivan, PG&E’s director of workforce strategy and diversity, says that 42% of the company’s 20,000-person workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next five to ten years. The sheer volume of employee turnover is prompting the company to ramp up its training and recruitment efforts, and to adjust its current training practices to meet the needs of the changing industry.

“Take mechanics,” said Ton-Quinlivan. “Because we have one of the largest fleets in the nation of natural gas vehicles, we need mechanics that are trained in natural gas technology. That mechanic won’t stop being a traditional mechanic, but will have additional skills that meet the demand.”

Green building is also expanding quickly. Since 2000, maximizing energy efficiency and using sustainable materials in building has increased in popularity, sparking the need for a more specifically trained workforce. But it’s not just builders that need a green-trained construction workforce. Borrego Solar, a solar electric contractor based in San Diego, prefers candidates with construction experience. The company increased its workforce by over 10% in the first half of this year alone. “Our industry is one of the few that needs construction professionals, and that demand is actually growing,” said Mike Hall, Borrego Solar’s president.

Educating the Workforce
Community colleges have been among the first to embrace green collar job training, and have been able to do so thanks to established industry-specific apprenticeship programs and talented faculty. Community college instructors are often active in professional organizations and stay up to date with industry innovation, making them able to adjust curriculum so students learn what employers need them to know. That has been the case at Los Rios Community College District in Sacramento.

“It’s part of the professional responsibility of a faculty member to update the curriculum and to be alive to the possibilities of change,” said Bill Karns, the district’s vice chancellor for Education and Technology. “The green revolution has provided many of our faculty a whole new area of exploration that has had a very powerful impact on their thinking and on their interest in recreating their curriculum or creating new curriculum.”

New challenges have arisen with the new training needs. Although many companies see green as a major part of the future, potential students are generally unaware of the opportunities that going green brings. WhoDoUWant2B? is a new initiative sponsored by the California Community Colleges System Office that is bringing those opportunities to the foreground. Aimed at high school students who are undecided about their futures, the initiative offers information on community college career and technical education programs, including green construction and automotive technology. The System Office is also establishing faculty development programs to prepare instructors for the new material.

Progress Report
While green collar jobs are relatively new, community colleges are already expanding and adding. This month, the first Green California Community College Summit brings together education, government, and industry decision makers to focus on the green economy. Because green collar jobs are similar to existing jobs, training can be done by tweaking the current curriculum. American River College in Sacramento, for example, is adding a sustainable design course to its interior design program.

For PG&E’s Power Pathway program, offered at four San Francisco Bay Area community colleges, there is no shortage of qualified faculty. Matt Hansen, a PG&E supervisor, teaches the program’s applied technology and math courses at College of San Mateo. He has nearly 25 years of experience as a journeyman electric lineman and two years of experience as a community college instructor. When the program was first piloted in early 2008, more than 4,700 applications were received for 100 spots. While PG&E still requires graduates to go through the company’s rigorous exam and selection process, the program’s curriculum and skills are just as relevant in similar industries.

In June, Los Angeles Trade-Technical College became the eighth California Community College to receive certification from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners for their entry-level solar installation program. William Elarton, chair of the school’s Construction, Design, and Manufacturing department, says that their electrician program has been teaching solar electric energy for years, but could not afford training equipment for a dedicated solar program. A recent district bond measure changed that, providing funds for a roof-top solar panel on one of the campus’s parking structures that will double as a training lab for students. According to Elarton, the program fills a great need.

Community college training programs are as diverse as the communities in which they are located. While some colleges have focused on solar, others have stepped it up in thermal energy, alternative fuel, or green construction.

“All of the community colleges are interested and committed to providing training and education programs related to green technology,” said José Millan, vice chancellor for Economic Development and Workforce Preparation at the System Office. “Some are more advanced than others, some are more specialized than others. The hallmark of our system is its diversity—the fact that you have some level of experience and expertise at every one of the 110 colleges.”

Southern California Edison sees more potential in community colleges than just training entry-level workers. Its Powerline programs at Rio Hondo and El Camino community colleges include introductory courses for those breaking into the industry, as well as courses for current employees to continue building their skills.

Other colleges have taken on more of a facilitator role. Merritt College’s partnership with the Regional Technical Training Center (RTTC) trains and certifies environmental engineering technicians. Merritt College developed the classroom curriculum, and RTTC takes care of the hands-on training, job placement assistance, and follow up. Nearby, Contra Costa College developed curriculum for the City of Richmond’s Richmond Builds program, a 10-week solar installation and construction training program for adults with little or no work experience. Over 90 percent of their graduates have gone on to local union apprenticeships, solar installation positions, or prevailing-wage jobs.

Next Class
Community colleges face new challenges in training the upcoming green collar workforce, but progress continues to be seen. Recalling a recent visit to Merritt College, Borrego Solar’s Mike Hall sees high potential in community colleges.

“They were doing some really good technical training on how to analyze the impact of shading on a solar array,” Hall said. “I’d never seen that done in a classroom outside our company before. That was really eye-opening for me and made me see that the community colleges really are getting it and starting to train people in some of the specific on-the-job technical knowledge they would need to be successful in our industry.”

Sisk, who graduated from the program at Merritt College in June, agrees that community colleges should be the ones to step up to the plate. Less than a month after graduation, nearly a third of the program’s graduates are already employed as solar panel installers or environmental engineering technicians, making anywhere from $18–$26 an hour. Sisk, just two months after graduation, is now installing photovoltaic panels for SunPower Corporation and couldn’t be happier.

“I’ve always been interested in solar panels and now I know how the whole system works and the interface components,” he said. “If every house had them, we wouldn’t have an energy problem.”