By Natasha Bright
With growing concerns about the environment, new jobs are being created and existing jobs are changing so much that there's a new category of worker known as "green collar". Men and women seeking to enter an array of fields or update skills they already have might explore what their local community colleges have to offer in online degree and certificate programs and classes and campus-based programs. Community colleges throughout the country are developing new courses and tweaking current offerings to add environmental aspects that are becoming job requirements.
In 2009, more than 113 new sustainability-focused academic programs were announced or created at America's colleges, universities and technical schools, according to a report from the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Education. Community colleges particularly are training students for green collar jobs. Green collar jobs in a Time magazine article were defined as anything that helps put America on the path to a cleaner, more energy efficient future and as career paths that benefit the environment, offer room for advancement, and provide salaries and benefits to support a family.
Green collar jobs often involve manual labor and require less than a bachelor's degree, according to Affinityonline, a magazine for California's community colleges. Students who want to train for green collar jobs might consider areas such as energy, agriculture and construction, or alternative fuels and transportation, the publication noted. Several of the new or changed offerings at community colleges are being launched in partnership with state workforce agencies. In some instances, green collar programs encompass only a few weeks. At least one program, intended to help students train for lead and asbestos abatement work in Missouri and Illinois, is free for qualifying participants.
The Missouri program, like many others, is being paid for at least in part with federal stimulus money. As early as 2008, President Barack Obama promised to spend $150 billion over 10 years to create green collar jobs, the Time magazine article noted. The president this year has announced that stimulus money would benefit tax credits for clean energy manufacturing and that more money would be spent on a residential energy retrofit program.
In Tennessee, a power company provided a $2.9 million energy training grant from stimulus money to four community colleges, a July article in the Memphis Flyer noted. There, new and updated classes as part of 10 programs are to include offerings in solar energy and are scheduled to begin this fall, according to the newspaper. A community college in Massachusetts plans to launch a class in solar installation with a local workforce investment board, The Herald News reported.
A 2006 study from a Tennessee university reported that a renewable energy focus particularly could create 5.1 million new jobs by 2025 and that agricultural and forestry resources could provide for 25 percent of the renewable energy demands. An organization known as Clean Edge, meanwhile, called renewable energy a driving force for economic recovery worldwide. Illinois has been at the forefront in responding to green workforce training, according to a report in suburban Chicago's Daily Herald. Colleges and universities there are adding green classes that are filling fast, the article noted.
Green collar jobs are varied. An existing Massachusetts community college class in construction methods is being transformed into green building practices, with students able to learn strategies for earning the U.S. Green Building Council's internationally recognized Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification, according to The Herald News. LEED recognizes areas such as water conservation and improved indoor air quality as well as reduced carbon dioxide emissions. In California, where the state is working to reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2020, gas and electric companies cited a need for mechanics trained in natural gas technology, according to Affinityonline.
Natural gas is the focus of training expected to begin in early 2011 at a Pennsylvania community college and a technical college, thanks to a $5 million federal grant, the Sun Gazette reported. Courses are to be offered in areas such as welding and brazing and rotary drilling and are to focus first on low income students and military veterans, the newspaper reported. Tennessee's community colleges, on the other hand, are concentrating on training the unemployed and dislocated workers in green collar jobs, according to the Memphis Flyer.
Many distance learning colleges are offering online degrees that allow entry into these green fields, as well as providing the necessary credentials to enter more specialized careers. The courses provided by these online schools are moving dedicated professionals into pro-environmental fields that will benefit us all.