On Wednesday, job "gurus", CEOs, and lawmakers are convening at the Capitol to discuss and brainstorm about "green-collar" jobs, which include wind turbine technician and home insulation installer. The conference is taking place to keep Texans employed during a shifting energy, environment, and manufacturing landscape.
The conference is sponsored by the University of Texas' Clean Energy Incubator, lobbying groups for utilities, the renewable industry and environmentalists. The job training is falling on the state's schools, whose administrators see clean energy as the next big job openings for graduates. Training sessions for solar panel technicians fill up soon after they're announced, said Sidney Bolfling, the coordinator for renewable energy technologies for Texas State Technical College in Waco. He believes paying for training "is a great investment for the state" and drives around in a "mobile training facility" which is actually a 44-foot-long trailer with solar panels and other alternative energy equipment to teach high schoolers and college students about renewables. He's operating the renewable energy training with grants of at least $300,000 from the State Energy Conservation office. The Texas Workforce Commission is also directing money toward alternative energy programs like Texas Tech University to prepare students to meet the workforce needs of the wind energy industry in Texas.
I believe this conference is important because everyone knows we need renewable alternate energy sources in the future and trained professionals to know how to design and run the equipment. It is a great idea to keep funding these universities, technical schools, and community colleges to train our near-future workforce in this area.
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