The economic recovery act and many initiatives prior to it have identified substantial growth of jobs in energy and green technology related fields as a quick and sustainable way to stabilize employment today and grow good quality domestic jobs in a world economy.

Although there have been several worthy workforce training initiatives in green technologies, there is not a clear template of what effective workforce training encompasses, for example, what constitute the generic, fundamental skills that need to be taught to all in the workforce, and what are the skills that are sector specific for which training may need to vary by geographic area of the workforce.  Workforce training for a “green” economy is not so much about learning entirely new skills, but rather learning new methods and how to use new materials with existing skills.  This point is the key difference and has extremely significant implications because conventional industrial practices are based on performing well established recipes whereas “green” industrial practices will require the workforce to evaluate and adopt new materials and methods.

Open the White Paper