National Plan Released by U.S. Education Leaders to Prepare Students for Cleantech Workforce

“Greenprint: A Plan to Prepare Community College Students for Careers in the Clean Economy” has been released through a collaboration with Jobs for the Future, National Wildlife Federation, Bank of America and education leaders across North America.

According to the press release:

This plan comes at a critical time as President Obama’s State of the Union Address last week called for a clean economy, good jobs for all, and free workforce education and training at the nation’s 1,200 community colleges. Recently, 190 heads of state met in Paris for the COP-21 to address the need to curtail climate change and eliminate greenhouse gas pollution. This new report begins to address the challenge of linking workforce development and environmental quality in the U.S. and beyond. Highlights include:

• Competitive employers require a workforce with 21st-century skills and sustainability basics. Workers need to be equipped with the new skills required for millions of new jobs that are eclipsing their older, fossil-fuel-based counterparts and providing comparatively better wages for adults across all demographics, including lower-skilled adults.(i)

• America’s workforce needs to have the skill sets to curtail carbon pollution. This will require rapidly scaling up innovations in dozens of industries — and training workers to carry out these changes — such as clean energy generation, distribution and storage; smarter grids; smarter transportation systems; more sustainable food and agriculture; improved forest management; restored coastal ecosystems; and closed loop manufacturing.

• Community colleges are uniquely positioned to help develop these skills in America’s workforce. In the U.S., the majority of jobs requiring science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) will require education beyond high school, including that provided by community colleges. And for millions of adults, community colleges will provide the pathways into STEM jobs.(ii) The imperative for community colleges to prepare graduates with sustainability skills will only increase as these STEM fields become greener.

Click here to read the full press release.