Programs that train people to install and maintain solar panels, electric car chargers, wind turbines, and other skilled green jobs are hard to find in suburban community colleges. But some local colleges are offering students other opportunities to be part of the growing green economy, education experts say.
As the cost of green energy technology falls and the appetite to switch from gas and oil-based energy grows, there are now around 9 million green jobs in the US. That number is projected to rise to 24 million over the next 10 years, according to a recent report by nonprofit news organization Working Nation.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, green jobs are those that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment, conserve natural resources, and engage workers in making their operations more environmentally friendly.
There are some certification programs at local community colleges that can help students find green jobs.
The Glen Ellyn-based College of DuPage and Elgin Community College offer a renewable energy technology certificate program, and the College of Lake County in Grayslake offers an alternative energy technology certificate program. McHenry County College in Crystal Lake and Harper College in Palatine do not offer such certificate programs.
While suburban community colleges don’t have many options to directly prepare students for green jobs, it is at least considering one.
At Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, which currently has no degree or certificate programs focused on green technologies, academic leaders recognize the growing need for skilled workers in these industries and are considering options for future programs, spokesman Stephen Butera said.
But most green jobs don’t require specific certifications — a majority require more general education, for example to become an engineer, lawyer or truck driver, the Working Nation report found.
An example of people with traditional jobs being part of the green economy can be found on the CLC’s Grayslake campus.
CLC Sustainability Manager David Husemoller said the college hired 18 companies to install the nearly 5,000 solar panels on the Grayslake campus. Although all 18 companies were required to complete the project, only one employee was trained to actually install the solar panels. The other 17 were still crucial to the completion of the green project.
Gilbert Michaud, an assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Environmental Sustainability, calls traditional jobs that are part of green energy projects “indirect green jobs.”
“There are many ways to get involved in the green economy,” Michaud said.
When it comes to training students for indirect green jobs, community colleges and universities do a great job, he added.
Often people can acquire the right skills outside of traditional educational structures to get direct green jobs, such as installing and operating many new green technologies, Michaud said.
For example, Michaud cited the Chicago-based nonprofit organization Elevate, which runs a clean energy job acceleration program that prepares individuals and contractors to build a career or business in the clean energy economy.
The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, the largest renewable energy organization that certifies people for direct green jobs like solar panel technicians, gives people the option to skip the classroom as long as they do six months of related work at a certified company.
And according to Robert Pollin, economics professor and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, direct green jobs pay well.
He told CNBC that the median salary for a wind power job is $80,300, solar power averages $74,500, and those retrofitting old buildings with more efficient technology $64,500.
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