Green Jobs // Current TV

Ecotech Institute’s Student Population Grows Nearly 400 Percent in One Year

Ecotech Institute, the first and only college entirely focused on preparing America’s workforce for careers in renewable energy and sustainability, announced today that its January quarter kicked off with 100 new students, the largest start to date. With total current enrollment at 473 students, Ecotech witnessed a student population increase of almost 400 percent in just one year.

Ecotech Institute started classes in a temporary facility in June 2010 as it completed an overhaul of an existing vacant building. In January 2011, Ecotech’s 119 students began attending school in its LEED gold-certified campus in Aurora, Colorado. Since then, the facility’s offerings, faculty and student enrollment have continually experienced growth and improvement.

This June, the first graduating class of 39 students is expected to receive their degrees and in December 2012, another 50 students are expected to graduate. Of these students, the most popular degrees include Wind Energy Technology, Renewable Energy Technology and Electrical Engineering Technology.

“We knew we had something special when Ecotech opened its doors, and it’s inspiring to see increasingly more students come from across the country to pursue a degree that can truly make a difference in the world,” said Mike Seifert, president of Ecotech Institute. “With our first group of graduates in June, we can’t wait to see where they go and to hear their stories of success. This is definitely going to be a big year for us.”

Today, 90 percent of Ecotech’s students are men and 77 percent of the students are from Colorado. However, every day more and more students are moving from other states to pursue a degree at Ecotech, with students from 37 states and Puerto Rico currently represented. The top states from which Ecotech students have relocated include California, New Jersey, Wyoming, Illinois and Texas.

With the growth in students comes a growth in faculty as well. When Ecotech first opened, the school had one program director and two instructors. Ecotech now has three program directors and 24 instructors who teach in 11 hands-on learning labs. Ecotech’s holistic teaching approach gives students a chance to learn first-hand about the technology they will use in the field of their future career. At Ecotech, students also learn soft skills (communication, workplace etiquette), math and science basics and technology skills.

Ecotech Institute, which is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, offers seven highly practical degree programs and one certificate program that provide graduates with skills valued by today’s alternative renewable energy employers.

To learn more about Ecotech Institute, visit us online at www.ecotechinstitute.com or call 877-326-5576. The next round of classes begins in April and applications are being accepted now. Financial assistance is available to those who qualify.Ecotech Institute, the first and only college entirely focused on preparing... more

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The Real Payback on Green Job Training Programs

Analysts with no field experience can paint a very bleak picture of the green job market and related training programs. In reality, hard numbers on employment post training are hard to come by. A handful of eager media representatives characterized green training programs as ineffective, drains on the economy, and in the worst reports as adding more to the problem than the solution. The benefits of these programs for individuals, communities, and the potential growth of the US’s renewables market is rarely quantified in numbers. The reality experienced by actual trainees is quite different.

Green job training programs typically focus on energy efficiency and renewables education for low-income and/or blue collar communities. The objective is simple: to educate the working class of America for jobs in one of the most stable sectors in the US market. Since the majority of work previously done by the working class has been exported to countries with cheap labor, the United States has struggled to create industries to employ its population without college-level degrees. This sector of the population typically works hourly jobs without benefits, pensions, or significant opportunities for advancement. Green job training programs were originally designed to provide these individuals with relevant training in a growing field.

Admittedly, the field has not grown fast enough to provide work for all of the newly trained individuals, yet this trend is similar to all sectors of the economy including finance and technology. With renewables making up 7% of the nation’s energy mix, the opportunities in the field are limited. Yet the growth of small to medium businesses that are providing home energy audits, energy efficiency programs, and other services that address the energy sector are seeing significant growth. Traditionally, the United States invests in various job training programs dependent on the potential of future markets. Renewables has garnered international respect, and in many cases necessity, as a market that will grow and continue to evolve into the foreseeable future.

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Unemployed coal miners in West Virginia install solar panels

A group devoted to creating alternative energy jobs in Central Appalachia is building a first for West Virginia's southern coalfields region this week – a set of rooftop solar panels, assembled by unemployed and underemployed coal miners and contractors.

The 40- by 15-foot solar array going up on a doctor's office in Williamson is significant not for its size but for its location: It signals to an area long reliant on mining that there can be life beyond coal.

People were skeptical when the idea was first floated about a year ago, says Nick Getzen, spokesman for The Jobs Project, which is trying to create renewable energy job opportunities in West Virginia and Kentucky. In the southern coalfields, he says, people have only ever gotten electricity one way – from coal-fired power plants.

"This is the first sign for a lot of folks that this is real, and that it's real technology, and they can have it in their communities," Getzen says. "In no way are we against coal or trying to replace coal. There's still going to be coal mining here. This is just something else to help the economy."

The Jobs Project teamed up about a year ago with a solar energy company from the Eastern Panhandle, Mountain View Solar & Wind of Berkeley Springs, to develop a privately funded job-training program. The 12 trainees are earning $45 an hour for three days of work, while some local laborers are earning $10 an hour helping out.

Mountain View owner Mike McKechnie is also buying all his electrical supplies from a local business.

"We are not funded by any state organization. We're doing this as a business because we want to grow the solar infrastructure and industry," McKechnie says. "We're West Virginians, and we think it's important. There's a need here that's not being met."

Demand for solar energy has been growing in West Virginia, and McKechnie's company has been expanding with it. Mountain View has tripled in size two years in a row and is likely to do the same in 2011. It now employs 15 full-time workers, five part-timers and a network of about a dozen electricians, plumbers, roofers and general contractors who do installations when McKechnie calls.

"This training model we're unleashing in Williamson is something we've proven," McKechnie says. "It's not a pilot project. It's something we've shown works."

_____
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Ecotech Institute’s Student Population Grows Nearly 400 Percent in One Year

Green Jobs Make Up 35% of Design and Construction Industry

NREL | Green Jobs Farm | Colorado

Green Jobs Numbers Disappointing

Watergate Times Three

Where is MSNBC?

A bad day for transforming "Amerika"

Solyndra is just the tip of the iceburg

Help Save the Pennsylvania Conservation Corps

The Real Payback on Green Job Training Programs

Green Jobs Will Trump Climate Change for Young Voters

“Green jobs” Come in Every Shape and Size

Unemployed coal miners in West Virginia install solar panels

Young farmers need help from the USDA—and the next Farm Bill

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