This week, the Apollo Alliance released a series of reports in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin that identify components of those states’ workforce development infrastructures that can be better integrated and scaled up to help fill jobs in the clean energy sector. As readers of the weekly update are well aware, over the past decade, clean energy jobs have grown at more than twice the rate of overall jobs, according to a study released last June by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The reports, Mapping Green Career Pathways: Job Training Opportunities and Infrastructure, recommend strengthening existing training infrastructures to build workers’ skills to fill green-collar jobs that are being created in the construction and manufacturing sectors, which are projected to account for 55 percent of all new jobs in the emerging renewable energy and efficiency industries. Overall employment in construction and manufacturing declined sharply over the past decade and has been particularly hard hit by the recession. Ohio lost 106,000 manufacturing jobs and 31,000 construction jobs last year; Michigan shed 94,000 manufacturing jobs and 31,000 construction jobs in 2009; and Wisconsin has lost more than 25 percent of its manufacturing jobs since 2000.
“The demand for clean energy workers is real and will only grow as federal, regional and state climate and energy policies move forward,” said Elena Foshay, research associate for the Apollo Alliance and a co-author of the report. “However, for these states to take full advantage of this job creation potential, they will need workers whose skills match the needs of the employers and industries of the clean energy economy.”
Mapping Green Career Pathways identifies existing training programs that represent key elements of an integrated green workforce development system. According to the reports, many of the elements of a green training infrastructure already exist in each state, but there are still gaps along the green career pathway that must be filled through stronger, more integrated training programs.
On a telephone press conference announcing the release of the Michigan report, Ken Gawlak, a former General Motors worker, described how the report’s findings relate directly to his experience. He was laid off after working for GM for ten years and decided to explore other career options by talking to counselors at his local community college, Delta College. They recommended that Gawlak enroll in a new training program the college created in collaboration with three local solar companies that were having trouble filling chemical process operator positions. His tuition was paid for by a new program in Michigan called No Worker Left Behind.
After completing a 16-week course, Gawlak got a job working at Dow Corning in solar manufacturing. “Out of the 23 students in the class, 11 had job offers before the class even concluded,” Gawlak said. “There’s definitely a need there, and employers are making use of the students and the program and gobbling them up even before they finish.”
To read the Mapping Green Career Pathways reports, go to www.ApolloAlliance.org.
Creating Clean Energy Jobs Still a Priority for President and Senate Leaders
During Wednesday’s State of the Union speech, President Obama often mentioned the clean energy economy and the need to put Americans to work in clean energy manufacturing facilities and jobs improving the energy efficiency of people’s homes. He also called for the passage of a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill.
“I know there have been questions about whether we can afford such changes in a tough economy; and I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change,” the president said. “But even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future—because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation.”
Read the State of the Union speech.
In response to the State of the Union address, Apollo Alliance Chairman Phil Angelides praised the president’s ongoing commitment to clean energy job creation and announced that Apollo will host a series of events in the Midwest to help chart this clean energy course. “Over the next several weeks, Apollo Alliances in Michigan, Indiana and Missouri will host forums to discuss how these states can reap the economic benefits of the global movement toward clean energy production,” Angelides said. “These forums will bring together a diverse array of businesses, labor leaders, political officials and economic development experts who can speak to the job creation potential of federal investments in cleaner, more efficient energy technologies, as well as to the role that federal climate and energy policies must play to drive demand and spur economic growth.”
Read the announcement about Apollo clean energy job creation events in Michigan, Indiana and Missouri.
Next week, the Senate is expected to announce its own plans for clean energy job creation when it introduces a jobs bill. The bill is said to include funding for many of the projects Apollo has advocated for in the New Apollo Program and the Apollo Green Manufacturing Action Plan, including home energy efficiency retrofits, manufacturing plant retrofits, transportation and infrastructure projects, and other measures.