Green Jobs and Adult Basic Skills 2
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From: ccato@youthbuild.org
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1176] introduction to YouthBuild USA's Green Jobs Program
Date: April 6, 2009 1:54:06 PM EDT
Hello All, this is Chris Cato the Green Initiative Project Manager for YouthBuild USA. www.youthbuild.org/green We are excited to be a part of this week long conversation about green jobs and building a foundation for environmental leadership that will ultimately fuel a green economy.
YouthBuild USA gives a great deal of attention to leadership development as a key element to employability and making sure that things go right in all aspects of life. The opportunity for YouthBuild graduates to populate these green jobs is real and comes with an opportunity to address environmental leadership needs of the communities that YouthBuild serves. We believe that leadership is one of the missing elements in most conversations about green jobs. We are providing workshops, information and resources to collect the best practices from within our network and are rapidly learning from everywhere possible of the varied approaches to creating green jobs, training for these jobs and advocating tt see that these jobs are sustainable.
Every year, about 7,000 disconnected and highly disadvantaged youth rebuild their lives and their communities while producing over 1,000 units of affordable housing in YouthBuild. They accomplish this by alternating equal time in the classroom studying for a GED or high school diploma with time on a construction site where they are trained to build or rehabilitate affordable housing. YouthBuild is a major force in producing quality, affordable housing for low-income families in over 220 of our country’s most impoverished communities while at the same time creating pathways out of poverty for thousands of struggling youth.
Since 1993, YouthBuild USA and its network have garnered and utilized over $600 million in public funds in the country’s poorest urban, rural, and tribal communities. This has resulted in the creation of over 16,000 units of affordable housing by over 64,000 youth since 1993.
The construction of new and rehabilitated affordable housing remains at the heart of the YouthBuild program ever since the first YouthBuild program in East Harlem rehabilitated an abandoned apartment building in 1972. Oftentimes, students and graduates are heard describing the transformation that took place within themselves as having been akin to their home building, like rebuilding the structure of their lives. YouthBuild students recycle unused buildings into homes for first-time homeowners, low-income and homeless people.
YouthBuild USA launched the Green Initiative in 2005 in recognition of the many YouthBuild programs that have advanced their practice of environmentally responsible building practices and had success in opening career pathways in the larger green industry for their youth. These programs demonstrate the idea that environmental responsibility is the next frontier in leadership, taking responsibility for making things go right in communities that too often endure the worst environmental impacts yet receive the fewest resources for solutions.
The YouthBuild Green Initiative’s purpose is to provide YouthBuild programs with the technical assistance, training, funding, and other supports that help them to be leaders in reducing global warming, restoring environmental justice, and attending to the rising costs of energy. The Green Initiative supports YouthBuild programs that provide their youth with employment and community service opportunities in the Green Industries and provide low-income homeowners with more affordable and healthy housing built responsibly—Green Building.
Chris Cato
Green Initiative Project Manager
YouthBuild USA
(617) 741-1207
ccato@youthbuild.org
From: DJRosen@theworld.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1177] Green Jobs and Adult Basic Skills
Date: April 6, 2009 2:36:24 PM EDT
Colleagues,
Thanks Alex, Kate and Chris for your introductions. Vien hopes to join us this evening. Let's begin to discuss today's questions.
What are Green Jobs and what kinds are available? What’s the Green Jobs outlook, especially for adult basic skills students? What “Green” fields and Green Jobs do you recommend in particular for adult basic skills students? What are the job requirements and job descriptions for these jobs?
- What kinds of jobs will be available in the green industries?
- What kinds of skills will be needed for these jobs?
- Are there areas more immediately profitable for our students? Weatherization training? Energy audit training? How advanced are these trainings?
- Would you share job descriptions, with a focus on the qualifications required?
- Can you provide an hourly or salary pay range for these jobs?
- What impact will the emergence of Green Jobs have on the Occupational Outlook Handbook (and O*NET) demand and salary projections?
- What is the outlook for job growth in the green economy in Massachusetts? States like California have a huge green investment and infrastructure (as well as a different geography!!). Is it likely the green sector will introduce and sustain many new jobs?
- What specific green job openings are there in the Greater Boston Area?
- I am an adult education instructor in a rural county of North Georgia. The technical college for my county has recently merged with 2 other technical colleges based in north metro Atlanta. My question is actually two-fold: Considering the recent unemployment rates, what are the recommended fields for the retraining of individuals previously employed in industries such as carpet mills and light industrial manufacturing and those in the construction field. In addition, what would be the best field for initial training of individuals, such as recent high school graduates and GED graduates, new to this job market?
- According to the Maryland Green Economic Recovery Program, it appears that the majority of the jobs will require a high school diploma. For our students in the lower levels who are not at that point - will there be jobs for them while they continue to work toward their diploma?
- Where can I find a listing of average hourly wage rates and education requirements for certain Green Jobs? The District of Columbia has a Green Job focused summer internship program, and I’d like to create a list of jobs along with, skill requirements, education requirements and average hourly wage to share with our young adults that are being introduced to this career option.
- I recently attended a conference session about Green Jobs, and found out that textiles is one of the four areas where Green Jobs will be created. The other three were retrofitting, fuels, and organic farming. I hadn't thought of textiles prior to this, but it does make sense. My question is in regard to outsourcing. Since few textile mills remain in the U.S., how will growth in this industry help the U.S. worker and economy?
David J. Rosen
Special Topics Discussion Moderator
DJRosen@theworld.com
From: vien@greenforall.org
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1178] Vien's Introductory Message
Date: April 7, 2009 1:42:32 AM EDT
My name is Vien Truong. I am the Senior Policy Associate at Green For All. My primary work is to support and collaborate with state policymakers and community leaders in the development and implementation of green jobs policies and programs in states throughout the country.
My interest in green jobs stems from my upbringing in Oakland, California, an urban city with high rates of poverty and pollution. Green jobs are a solution to improve the environmental quality for historically marginalized residents in urban, sub-urban, rural, and tribal communities around our nation.
It is important to connect students, especially “at-risk” or low-income students, to jobs that are dignified and pay enough to sustain a family. Many high schools are failing their students. A 2004 study by the Harvard Civil Rights Project found that 30 percent of students – and 50 percent of students of color – leave public schools without a high school diploma. Indeed, some schools have over 70 percent dropout rates. Of the students who do go on to college, only 20 percent receive an Associates or a Bachelors degree. The system of pushing students into white-collar jobs has been failing, we must provide students with opportunities in the green collar economy.
Teachers and trainers should help their students get green jobs or help them access union apprenticeship programs. Preparation and understanding of these options are important to develop a classroom curriculum or training program. As such, it is important to know the existing research, reports, and resources on these issues. Green For All can serve as a starting point to connect teachers, trainers, and other stakeholders to relevant and helpful resources.
My question to participants is: What is the primary difficulty you face in implementing green jobs training? What services or resources would you find most useful for your work?
From: DJRosen@theworld.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1179] Accessible Green Jobs
Date: April 7, 2009 4:29:44 AM EDT
Alex,
Could you say more about the kinds of jobs that you think are truly accessible to ABE/GED/ESOL learners?
Anyone, Alex has asked for the" top 5 necessary components or characteristics of a training program that is genuinely accessible to students in our programs. What components would you suggest?" Post your responses to specialtopics@nifl.gov
David J. Rosen
Special Topics Discussion Moderator
djrosen@theworld.com
From: DJRosen@theworld.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1180] Regional market assessments, supply chains, energy auditors, green jobs training
programs?
Date: April 7, 2009 4:51:27 AM EDT
Kate,
You have emphasized the importance of regional market assessments. Where would a teacher find these in her community, for example, a regional market analysis for Green building and retrofitting?
For those who may not be familiar with "supply chains" can you say more about what these and why they are important?
What are the industries that are "going green"?
Can you say more about the job of energy auditor? Is there a description for this job? (I didn't find it in O*Net, at http://online.onetcenter.org/ Is it there yet?)
Anyone,
Does your organization (community college, cbo/ngo, school, union, etc.) have a Green Jobs training program? If so, tell us about it. When did it begin? Who does it serve? What Green Jobs does it train for? What are the opportunities and challenges for this training program?
David J. Rosen
Special Topics Discussion Moderator
DJRosen@theworld.com
From: DJRosen@theworld.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1181] YouthBuild USA's Green Initiative
Date: April 7, 2009 5:00:03 AM EDT
Chris,
Can you tell us more about the content of YouthBuild's Green Initiative? Is there a Green curriculum of additional knowledge and skills to the training that YouthBuild has always provided in building construction and rehab/renewal? Can you give some examples of the new content? How do YouthBuild programs in the Green initiative teach these new skills? In the classroom? On the job? Both?
What do you consider the most important aspects of environmental leadership? How are these leadership skills and knowledge taught in YouthBuild programs?
David J. Rosen
Special Topics Discussion Moderator
DJRosen at theworld.com
From: DJRosen@theworld.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1182] Green Jobs "hotbeds" and apprenticeships
Date: April 7, 2009 5:07:13 AM EDT
Vien,
Since you work with programs across the country, can you tell us what parts of the country are Green Jobs "hotbeds", places that have been actively working on developing Green Jobs policies and where there is already a lot of experience in Green Jobs training programs?
Can you tell us more about union apprenticeship programs, especially Green Jobs apprenticeships? How would teachers find out about these in their community?
Anyone,
Vien has asked: "What is the primary difficulty you face in implementing green jobs training? What services or resources would you find most useful for your work?"
David J. Rosen
Special Topics Discussion Moderator
DJRosen@theworld.com
From: katherine.gotthardt@gmail.com
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1183] Re: Accessible Green Jobs
Date: April 7, 2009 7:24:49 AM EDT
David and Alex, in response to your request for questions on training requirements, I am wondering, first, what sorts of jobs you would be training these adult learners for.
Also, would these adult learners know they were preparing to work in a "green job"?
How much interest in the environment do adult ABE/GED/ESOL students have? When they have so many challenges already, is working in a green job important for them?
Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt
Community Writer for NEWS AND MESSENGER
www.insidenova.com
From: christiej@rcs.k12.in.us
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1184] Re: Vien's Introductory Message
Date: April 7, 2009 9:13:08 AM EDT
There have been many good questions posed and resources provided already in our discussion. I need to share these resources with local/regional EDCs, chambers, universities to find out what may already be going on in our community.
One thing that would be helpful to my ABE students is to have someone involved in these local/regional Green efforts come talk to them about how we can impact our community AND generate an income. This would also provide impetus for post-secondary training or coursework for my students.
Thanks,
Christie Joy
Richmond, IN
From: christiej@rcs.k12.in.us
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1185] Accessible Green Jobs--Necessary Training Components
Date: April 7, 2009 9:16:05 AM EDT
Not sure if I can come up with 5 components, but here's what I'm thinking:
- Broad overview of what "green means"
- Impact of going green -- or not...
- Opportunities within green industry/economy
- Getting involved with local/regional green efforts
Christie Joy
From: alex@findingearthworks.org
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1186] Re: Accessible Green Jobs
Date: April 7, 2009 8:20:39 AM EDT
Katherine and David,
The term green jobs may continue to stumble us throughout this discussion (and it is worth having a strand of this discussion just about this!).
Let’s talk right now about jobs in the clean energy sector. This includes jobs in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Jobs in these sub-sectors include hands on, trade jobs, like plumbers and electricians, as well as pv and solar thermal installers and air sealers and insulation contractors and their crews. Also included are bookkeeping jobs, administrative assistant and sales jobs.
Immediately the question of training becomes quite a bit more specific – it would likely be different for each of the jobs in the above paragraph, some requiring a lot of hands on training, some requiring much more math, some requiring clearly much more, some much less training. This, I think speaks to your question – what job are we getting people ready for and what academic skills do students need to be able to succeed in the training.
My question about what are the five components might better be stated as what are the five components that a training would need to have in order for a ready ABE student to succeed in it. I ask this to help us get to the place where ABE programs can sit down with training providers and say in order for us to transition students into your program, the program would need to include transportation reimbursement, case management that looks like xyz, etc. My experience is that training for some jobs is offered by institutions and the bar to entry is higher than is required by the actual skills needed to do the job. If ABE programs are helping to plan the training, there are ways that even training with higher academic requirements can be structured to be much more accessible to our students through the institutionalization of supports like case management and other components.
As for would students know they were preparing for a ‘green’ job. This is one of the places that I feel like ABE programs and students have a huge opportunity. Right now our country and our planet is engaged in addressing the huge environmental challenge that climate change presents. This will create huge changes in the way we fuel our lives and our work/production. To the extent that ABE programs can support student understanding and critical thinking about energy and environmental systems (particularly how they are interconnected and that that is the case for everything, despite how humans have been living), we’ll be preparing them to not only know about green jobs, but to understand why such work is important and be well prepared to continue to adjust as our collective societal and planetary response shifts as the climate change unfolds. That was a long way of saying that I think students need to know that the job is a ‘green’ job (especially if it is one that might be a ‘regular’ job like electrician, but includes the installation of pv solar). All of what I do in terms of green career awareness builds from the larger context of what is happening with fossil fuels and global climate change.
Thanks for your question – I look forward to continuing the discussion.
Alex
Alex Risley Schroeder
Principal, Finding Earth Works
413.531.8783
alex@findingearthworks.org
findingearthworks.org
From: liz@strategymatters.org
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1187] Re: Vien's Introductory Message
Date: April 7, 2009 8:02:29 AM EDT
Hi Vien, all,
As a consultant, I work with a variety of workforce development organizations, intermediaries and funders as well as with ABE/ESOL providers. One of the challenges that I am noticing (over and over) is that the training program development is dependent upon someone having a very firm grasp on the specific skills that will make someone employable. Of course, in areas like nursing or hospitality, these skill sets are well understood and ample resources exist for those seeking to develop contextualized curricula. But green jobs?
In one of my projects, we had a notion that there was a need for people to train to install solar panels. And in fact, there was -- the open jobs in town were at a solar panel installation co. They needed to hire 4 people. And those four people needed to be trained in a proprietary method owned by the solar panel manufacturer. How does an ABE/ESOL (let alone a workforce training program serving lower skilled adults) respond appropriately to that narrow niche? Or another way of saying this is: what distinguishes the general/basic skills needed for a green collar job from those skills that ABE/ESOL students might need for, say, college or another entry point into the job market? What makes them "green collar ready?"
In answer to your question What services or resources would you find most useful for your work? I think that my clients (on both the WFD and ABE/ESOL side of the house) would really benefit from having a fuller conception of what green-ready means, in a way similar to how we now think about College Readiness.
I look forward to hearing the thoughts of others on this important question that Vien posed!
LIZ O'CONNOR
strategy matters
617-733-2286
www.strategymatters.org
From: gyarnell@hps.holyoke.ma.us
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1188] difficulties in implementing
Date: April 7, 2009 8:56:46 AM EDT
Hi there,
From a teacher’s perspective, I see 2 barriers:
1. A knowledge gap on the instructor’s part: What’s out there for resources? Etc…
2. The view that this is ‘one more thing’ to try to do/incorporate into the curricula
While I put these as barriers, I also recognize that these are the same ‘barriers’ that were expressed when integrating workforce development (in its more general sense) a number of years ago…
Be well,
Glenn Yarnell
Lead Teacher
The HALO Center
From: mcaliste@atlantic.edu
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1189] Re: Accessible Green Jobs--Necessary Training Components
Date: April 7, 2009 9:37:03 AM EDT
I have attended many meetings already that have identified what is green, and impact on the economy. The Heldridge Report on Green Jobs is great if anyone needs it.
These are my questions (topics):
- Are there any new jobs in the green economy or are they just retooling of existing trades?
- What are the career tracks for green jobs?
- Can a lower level learner move from weatherization and retrofitting to energy auditor or engineer?
- What green jobs can a lower level learner have in the green economy that is not physical labor?
Jean McAlister
Associate Dean of Continuing Education
5100 Black Horse Pike, Building T
Mays Landing, New Jersey 08330
phone: 609-343-5688
cell: 609-204-1250
fax: 609-343-5661
www.atlantic.edu/cont
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