Greener Skills: How Credentials Create Value in the Clean Energy Economy

8/9/2019 Greener Skills: How Credentials Create Value in the Clean Energy Economy

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SARAH WHITE with LAURA DRESSER and JOEL ROGERS2010

C O W Scenter on wisconsin strategy

Greener

Skills

H ow Cre d e n ti als Cre at e Valu e in t h e Cle an E n e rg y E c on om y


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Acknowledgements

This paper, perhaps more than most, draws on a long history of collaboration and rumination on the concepts of green and skills

among principals at COWS. Laura Dresser, Joel Rogers, and Sarah White developed the arguments in this paper through countless

conversations, and the report plunders freely from Joels extensive writing on these topics. Kari Dickinson, Adrienne Pagac, and Ayca

Zayim provided research and production assistance. Others around the country improved early dras with advice and information,including Rhandi Berth, Mindy Feldbaum, Evelyn Ganzglass, Alan Hardcastle, Jeremy Hays, Beth Holst, Kari Knudson, Jeannine La Prad,

Andy Levin, Sally Prouty, Je Rickert, Whitney Smith, Jessa Valentine, Jason Walsh, and Jane Weissman. Thanks to them and many

others for much useful discussion. Any errors are, of course, ours alone. Finally, wed like to thank the Nathan Cummings Foundation

and the Surdna Foundation for their generous support of this project.

About cows

The Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) is a national think and do tank based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. COWS

works to promote high-road economic development a competitive market economy of shared prosperity, environmental sustainability

and capable democratic government.

Center on Wisconsin Strategy

University of Wisconsin-Madison

1180 Observatory Drive

Madison, WI 53706

608.263.3889

www.cows.org

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this

license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons,

171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.


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01 executivesummary

03 introduction: skills,Greenskills,

andtheneedforstandards

06 thestateofGreenskills:

credentialinGandchaos

30 Policyrecommendations: Greenerskillsand

Greenerstandards

34 conclusion

35 notes

Greener

Skills

H ow Cre d e n tials Cre ate Valu e in t h e Cle an E n e rg y E c on om y


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Even as this report delineates prominent national credentials

in selected clean energy sectors, its purpose is larger:

to suggest a more rational framework for human capital

development in a greening economy.


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executivesummary

Everyone wants to coax green shoots rom the economic badlands.

And as the promise o green jobs has generated a food o workorceinitiatives, most everyone would like to put their hands on an atlas

o green programs, skills, and credentials. But aer two years o discussion

and research, weve concluded that not only is developing a comprehensive,

comprehensible map o green credentials impossible, it isnt worth doing i

it doesnt get us closer to a coherent national system. And that is the central

argument o this paper.

We believe current excitement about the new energy economy, and concern

about national competitiveness, can be leveraged to nally achieve progress

on reorming our ractured education and training system. Not only does this

country need a ar greater investment in workorce development, but skills

particularly at the lower end o the labor market need to be delivered invery dierent ways. The priorities, as we see them, are more organization into

navigable career pathways aligned with demand; curricular modularization and

credentialing; and the integration o those social service supports necessary or

advancement.

Critical to this reorm agenda is the development o a national skill credentialing

system. This paper makes the case or such a system. We outline an American

skills agenda and call or a better, stronger, greener workorce system to

support it. We describe whats out there, ocusing on national certications

in renewable energy and energy eciency. And we conclude with a series o

policy recommendations or ederal, state, and workorce system stakeholders.

WhatWeFound

Aer siing through hundreds o clean energy credentials, one thing became

clear:All credentials are not created equal. To be worthwhile, credentials

should be: (1) meaningful in the labor market, because they have value to

employers; (2) transparent, so workers know how to earn them; and, where

possible, (3) embedded in a pathway, clearly connected to either a job or

the next level o training; (4) standardized, refecting common measures o

competence; and thus (5) portable not limited to a particular region, employer,

or institution.

Fragmentation in training systems within and across states undercuts the best

eorts o workers, employers, and communities to participate in building a

greener economy. Developing common standards and conerring commonly

recognized credentials or veried occupational skills oers a rm path orward.

For workers it provides mobility, bargaining power, and higher returns in the

labor market. For employers it provides assurance that job applicants have the

skills they need. And or consumers it provides critical inormation on the quality

o work they can expect. National standards can help guarantee both quality

jobs and quality work, in and outside o green sectors.


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2executivesummary

WhatWeRecommend

1. Leveragegreentothebroadergood,securingnationalagreementonskillstandardsandgettingseriousaboutbuildingasystemtocreateandsupportthem.

Realizing the equity promise o the new energy economy requires broad national agreement and action on the needed

reorms o our training system. One key reorm is the development o national skill standards and a system or the impartial

certication o their attainment.

2. FederalAction:Supportthosehigh-qualitynationalstandardsthatalreadyexist,andusepublicinvestmentstoencouragelocalconnectionstothem.

Wherever unctional, rst-rate skill standards exist or are emerging, the Departments o Labor, Energy, and Education,

among others, should support and advance them. These agencies need to pursue a clear and consistent approach to

standards, coordinating with each other on investments or other support and ensuring that industry inormation works its

way back through existing training and education systems.

3. StateAction:Driverationalizationthroughstateorregionalskillstandardsprocesses.

In the places where green training has already been built rom the ground up, state workorce systems should seek to link

local credentials to national standards, where they exist. But improving U.S. perormance on skills upgrading need not wait

or national systems reorm. States can work with regional industry partnerships to develop skill standards, and they should

extend such eorts to the broadest geography possible, establishing a common language o credentials in any given

labor market.

4. SystemsAction:Focusonthecoordinatedandstrategicgreeningofexistingcredentials,ratherthanrushtocreatemyriad(andredundant)newgreenjobsprograms.

Green jobs initiatives should be integrated into existing training systems. As we have consistently argued, much o the

green uture is already with us and seizing it requires us to transorm the industries and jobs we already have. Education andtraining systems do not always have to develop new diploma and degree programs, just greener ones.

5. FullCourtPress:Buildmoreon-rampstotraining,credentials,andjobsfortheworkerswhoneedopportunitymost.

Beyond skills training, green jobs initiatives must address access and upward mobility. To help workers advance rom

unemployment, disconnection, or dead-end, poverty-wage work into better, greener jobs, publically supported training

systems should only support clear, seamless, aordable career pathways to in-demand and materially rewarding

occupations, with portable credentials or credibly tested competencies. The rationale is the promise most democratic

governments make to their people: to at once maximize equal opportunity or individual advancement and minimize waste

o common resources. The current green moment oers a chance to renew that compact.

Greener Skills catalogs some prominent eorts toward standardization in renewable energy and energy eciency training,

including programs and credentials developed by:

North American Board or Certifed Energy Practitioners Association o Energy Engineers Electronics TechniciansAssociation Building Perormance Institute Residential Energy Services Network North American TechnicianExcellence Northwest Energy Eciency Council Green Building Certifcation Institute Wisconsin Regional TrainingPartnership AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department Laborers International Union o North America Centralia College Center o Excellence or Energy Technology


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introduction:skills,Greenskills,andtheneedforstandards3

Green and Greener

Just as green jobs oen turn

out to be traditional occupations

in traditional industries (like

construction and manuacturing),

and green skills are in many cases

not that dierent rom gray skills,

there is no green workorce

development system, just the same

imperect, ragmented education

and training system we had in the

gray economy. We need to make

it better, stronger, greener.

Some things are new and green,

to be sure, but the more important

point, which we make repeatedly

in this paper, is that the current

romance o things green oers a

chance to address the perennial

challenges o the existing U.S.

education and training system.

With all o this in mind, we will

reer throughout the text to

green economy, green training

etc., without the distraction o

quotation marks, and conceding

the awkwardness and sometimes

even disingenuousness o

speaking o green things as i

they were entirely discrete. We

also reely substitute the narrower

term new or clean energy

economy throughout the paper,

in line with our stated ocus on

renewable energy and energyeciency skills training.1

introduction:skills,Greenskills,andtheneedforstandards

Green jobs and the skills necessary to do them continue to

attract intense attention in this country and elsewhere,ueled by global climate change and job market collapse.

The attention is important, but uncoordinated investment in greening

the American workorce threatens to create more chaos in an already

cluttered U.S. training system. This paper assesses the state o green

training (a tumult o oen inconsistent credentials and competencies

across industries, employers, and providers); oers our normative

argument or doing better; and provides specic policy suggestions on

implementing a national credentialing system and ensuring equitable

access to it.

This report is not an inventory. It does not attempt to catalogue the ast-

emerging and rapidly evolving eld(s) o green. Even as it delineatesprominent national credentials in selected clean energy sectors, its

purpose is larger: to suggest a rational ramework or human capital

development in a greening economy, and to make the case or a national

policy o portable, transparent, consistent, industry-specic credentials

(and the state-supported pathways up to them).

While the ocus here is primarily on training in renewable energy

generation and energy eciency, the questions o credentialing they

raise have broader application. There are almost no green jobs, i by

that is meant jobs devoted only to increasing the ecient and restorative

use o our natural capital, with no destruction or waste o it o their own.

But i we are to have any uture, most jobs will need to be a good dealgreener than they are at present; almost all thats said here applies to

them. There are lessons even or those (very ew) unconcerned about

the environment, but dedicated to shared prosperity and capable,

accountable government.

Building an equitable, low-carbon economy one with opportunities or

workers at all levels to prosper and advance poses serious challenges

o demand and access. On demand, there is no denying the current

crisis in employment. But neither is there denying a longer-term increase

in demand or skilled labor. This will be driven by aging o the current

workorce; by belated national attention to our decits in energy,

transportation, and social inrastructure; and by new work requiredby transition to a new (cleaner and more ecient) energy economy.

The larger questions o access (who gets training, skills advancement,

and decent jobs) and competitiveness (how will U.S. high-road rms get

the skilled labor orce necessary to build a prosperous green uture)

can be answered most eectively and equitably by wholesale reorm o

training systems and the labor markets they supply. So while the question

o green skills motivates this report, the most essential problem to be

solved is the longstanding problem o skill and its distribution in the

American labor market in general.


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4introduction:skills,Greenskills,andtheneedforstandards

WhycRedentialsmatteR...

We will never be able to clean up the general mess o the American labor market or the specic conusion in green or greenerjobs without a stronger and broader commitment to credentials and a system o common standards that support them. In act,

some general system o skill standards is essential not just as a product, but a prod to, systemic training reorm. Done right,

everyone benets.

A competency-based credentials system, marking individual mastery o desired skills, immensely reduces employer search and

other transaction costs in hiring and promotion; reliable data on the aggregate human capital pool also acilitates planning.

The ability to demonstrate mastery o desired skills, in eect to carry a recognized credential, increases worker security on

external labor markets and, given that, fexibility in internal labor markets. Students or trainees gain clear signposts to desired

achievement, making that achievement more likely. The general public gains perormance accountability over public and private

training providers. All this leads to greater as well as more directed training eorts, improving the general human capital pool.

In the green context, the development and certication o standardized competencies can nudge energy eciency andrenewable energy industries onto the high road by guaranteeing both quality jobs and quality work.2 The ormer is essential to

realizing the equity promise o the new energy economy, the latter critical to demonstrating and capturing the benets o green

technologies. One way to get at job quality is to dene, and where possible require, a certied workorce, which can command

better wages in the labor market. The additional advantage and critical value-added, really o a certied labor orce is

that it oers some guarantee on quality o work. This is more than a question o individual return on investment. Every time a

poorly trained worker bungles the installation o, say, solar panels or even attic insulation, the public loses condence in green

innovation, eroding the countrys already tenuous political will to invest in low-carbon strategies.

...ButWestilldonthavetheskillstandaRdsto

suppoRtthemMost advanced economies have ar more elaborate, nationally recognized skill standards and credentialing systems than the

United States. In some countries (e.g., Germany) these have been longstanding; in others (e.g., Ireland) they are more recent. In

all cases, the chie dierence with the United States is that such credentials are elsewhere made available to the broad working

classes. They are not limited, as here, to proessionals (e.g., doctors, lawyers, accountants, and registered nurses), the provision o

specialized business service providers (e.g., Microso Certied, Six Sigma Black Belt), or those with the good ortune o passing

through a union apprenticeship program.

Just why this comparative dierence emerged and has persisted so long is itsel a big question, but need not concern us here. 3

Suce it to say that U.S. indierence on this is now being challenged, largely because o a generation-long stagnation in worker

incomes and atrophy o traditional means o career advancement or workers without our-year college degrees.4 To reintroduce

regular upward mobility paths, connect disadvantaged workers to the labor market and get them reward within it, reduce percapita provider training costs, show eects o training (particularly among cash-strapped public training providers), or, most

ambitiously, drive skills-based upgrading among rms, some standard way o measuring what workers know, that is accepted and

used by employers, is now generally seen as a social good.

The chie barrier to promoting this social good has traditionally been employer resistance to using skills credentials in hiring

and promotion. But this too is beginning to change, especially among more advanced rms. They are looking to reduce their

search costs or new employees and increase their condence that new hires possess at least a oundation o basic vocational

skills (both analytic and social) on which they can build. This is evident, or example, in the persistent interest in WorkKeys and

similar standardized basic skills credentials. Business is generally not prepared to do the mapping o workorce competencies

that a more skills-based workorce development system would require, or to use competencies as latter day rungs in ladders o

career advancement. In both, there is need or supportive public policy.


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introduction:skills,Greenskills,andtheneedforstandards5

theGReenmoment: cleaneneRGyandsystemsReFoRm

We have written elsewhere o the need to build greener career pathways in the new energy economy.5 Our point here is larger:a call to critical broad-based systems reorm. Beyond greening individual career pathways, the nations education and training

systems need to coordinate their products (credentials) and process (bridges and pathways), making them both accessible and

useul to low-wage workers; worthwhile to unemployed adults shiing occupations and others at advanced stages o single

careers; and, in the context o a cleaner and more ecient economy, meaningul to clusters o employers in key green industries.

We believe current excitement about the new energy economy, and concern about national competitiveness, can be leveraged

to nally achieve progress on more generally needed reorms o our ractured education and training system. Not only does

this country need a ar greater political and material investment in workorce development, but skills particularly at the lower

end o the labor market need to be delivered in very dierent ways. The priorities, as we see them, are more organization into

navigable career pathways aligned with demand; curricular modularization and credentialing; and, or those who need them,

integration o social service supports to make advancement possible.

Critical to this reorm agenda is the development o a national skills credentialing system.

A coherent skills agenda would entail:6

1. Mapping regional labor markets by skills, jobs, and careers, and providing the public with a clear way o seeing the

skills needed or dierent jobs and career pathways;

2. Modularizing training (breaking it into chunks), with each module delivering a certain competency or set o

competencies, dierent jobs or careers described by dierent clusters o such modules, and movement rom any

particular module to any other possible through a series o incremental moves;

3. Making training demand-driven (that is, tied to real labor market demand), with its supply inormed by high quality and

continuously revised inormation on labor market conditions;

4. Oering training in any way needed to maximize access (e.g., online, at night, on weekends, at distance, in eld settings

as well as classrooms);

5. Certiying skills through testing, with such demonstration indierent to the source or means o skill acquisition (i.e., i

someone with no ormal training can pass the test, more power to them);

6. Aligning certied skills with employer-recognized skill standards, at least implicitly tied to compensation;

7. Removing income as a barrier to training through need-based scholarships or individual loans;

8. Providing wrap-around social services to urther maximize access.

Such a system all the dierent parts o which have been demonstrated somewhere in the U.S., but nowhere all at once

would give workers knowledge o the skills they need to succeed, income-indierent access to them, and some assurance o

payo. This would make labor market mobility much more clearly a unction o ability and eort, not race or class or gender

hardly an equal opportunity paradise, but a lot closer to one than what we have at present.


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thestateofGreenskills:credentialinGandchaos

Lack o coordination in training systems within and across states undercuts the best eorts o workers, employers, and

consumers to participate in building a greener economy. In green initiatives as in traditional workorce development, thedisjointed, local nature o training systems pushes hard against the need or standardization and portability. I anything,

the rush to green training in recent years has magnied the problem o ragmentation.

In the vast universe o potentially green endeavors, the clean energy sector alone involves an enormous range o technologies,

industries, and occupations, some new, some traditional. A welter o programs oered by unions, technical and community

colleges, trade organizations, community groups, and just about anyone hanging out a shingle oer a variety o green

credentials, ew o them aligned or standardized, even within a given system. Between a our-hour continuing education

workshop and a our-year cra apprenticeship lies a wealth o oen sel-dened credentials. Developing common standards and

conerring commonly recognized certicates or occupational skills oers a rm path orward.

This section reaches into a throng o competing skills benchmarks that dier by industry, employer, and training provider, and

lis up a ew promising examples o standardization. These include national certications or careers in renewable energyand energy eciency larger standards that can be employed by a wide variety o local stakeholders and local certicate

programs that could be used as a system model, particularly at the entry level.

Describing the core array o certications and skill standards or workers in clean energy sectors is a key contribution o this

report and the primary work o this chapter. First, however, we discuss terms and methods, and oer a ew observations on what

we ound as we built our list.

teRms

A credential is a ormal acknowledgement o a particular level o training in a particular eld an applied associate degree,

or example, or a continuing education certicate, or a journey card. Certication reers to a voluntary system o standards,usually set by key stakeholders and subject matter experts, that practitioners can choose to meet in order to demonstrate

accomplishment or ability in their proession. A seemingly picayune but actually critical distinction particularly in the context

o standardizing credentials or clean energy occupations lies between certicate and certication. The American National

Standards Institute (ANSI) observes that while the terms are oen used synonymously,

Certication is more comprehensive and necessarily includes an assessment of an individuals knowledge, skills, and

abilities based on a body of knowledge pertaining to a profession or occupation. In comparison, certicate programs

emphasize learning events and coursework completion. Certication is valid for a specic time period and involves

recertication at the expiry of the stated period. Certicates are generally issued for life.7

Unlike licensure, a orm o regulation, the system o skill standards benchmarked by certication is not mandatory and does

not vary on a state-by-state basis (a great benet to workers, who then dont need to gain a new certication i they move to a

new state). It is conerred to the individual and should not be conused with accreditation, which is awarded to educational

institutions or programs or courses o study that meet instructional standards.8 The Institute or Sustainable Power Quality

(ISPQ), or example, tries to ensure that renewable energy technicians are trained to a common standard by establishing metrics

or related programs and certiying their instructors. In the United States, ISPQ standards are maintained and implemented by

the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). To complete the circle o accountability, organizations that award certications

should themselves be accredited.

The American National Standards Institute accredits personnel certiying agencies like the North American Board o Certied

Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), the Green Building Certication Institute (GBCI), and North American Technician Excellence


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(NATE), all discussed in the ollowing pages to an international standard,

including issues o governance, disclosure, airness to candidates, and non-discrimination.9 ANSI and like-minded organizations, like IREC, call or a sturdy

rewall between training and certication. A neutral third-party is necessary

to identiy current skill sets, design valid assessments, and veriy competency

therein lies the value (and the time, expense, and perceived trouble and/or

exclusivity) o national certications.

methods

We make no claims to comprehensiveness: this report is not the result o a ormal

survey, nor does it oer a panoptic map o clean-energy certications, much less

clean or green credentials in general. Rather, to understand the nations training

system in the context o its green credentials, we compiled a sprawling almanac,

populated with inormation gleaned rom technical college course catalogues,

apprenticeship directories, community program descriptions, certication

guidelines, industry standards, and a slew o related reports and analysis. Then we

talked to experts in and outside o the workorce system.

As a result, while we havent gathered every green or greening credential out

there, we do report on those that are most amiliar to people working in renewable

energy and energy eciency.10 And while we have not vetted the eatured

certications to determine which is best on any number o measures, we do come

to conclusions about which directions seem most promising.

One initial challenge in the research was simply to identiy, understand, and

categorize the many parties with a stake or interest in green-related training:

educational institutions, workorce intermediaries, community-based organizations,

industry and trade groups, independent certiying bodies, governmental and

non-governmental initiatives, etc. Our next task was to narrow the scope o inquiry,

ocusing on national certications or clean energy skills, as well as a handul o

local or system-specic eorts at standardization. Our goal was not to report on

the latest, sexiest green training program, but to elevate credentials or standards

that could inorm workorce system reorm or the long haul.

Outlining the undamental installation and operations credentials in the relatively

recent (and circumscribed) renewable energy industry, limited here to solar, wind,and geothermal, was airly straightorward; parsing the more established energy

eciency sector where building design, unction, construction, inspection,

retrot, and management oer a booming but crowded and conusing eld o

green credentials proved more dicult.

Its worth noting that the challenge o presenting these in some meaningul order

in this report mirrors the complexity o raming national skill standards. What is

the organizing principle: Industry sector? Occupation? Educational attainment or

technical prociency? Technology?

In green initiatives,as in traditionalworkforcedevelopment, thedisjointed, localnature of trainingsystems pusheshard againstthe need forstandardizationand portability.


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8thestateofGreenskills:credentialinGandchaos

In the course o exploring this universe o existing and emerging certifcations related to clean energy

occupations, we were struck by a handul o signifcant i pedestrian points that may move us closer to

a ramework or how to think about our ractured training system. We run through them here, beore

diving into the weeds, because they are worth thinking about, and may help rame the national green

credentialing discussion better than any compendium o programs.

1. All credentials are not created equal

To be worthwhile, credentials should be:

Meaningfulinthelabormarket,because they have value to employers;

Transparent,so workers know how to earn them;

Where possible, embeddedinapathway,clearly connected to either a job or the next level o training;

Standardized,refecting common measures o competence; and thus

Portable not limited to a particular region, employer, or institution.

2. Certications typically serve advanced professionals

Most national certications, with standardized skill sets and third-party verication, operate at the high end o the labor

market. This has always been true, since this is where the money and attention lies in the United States. In existing

industries, certication has typically accompanied advanced achievement in the proessions (e.g., medicine, law, nance).

Doing it right is time-consuming and expensive (the ANSI process, described elsewhere in this paper, can take up to

two years). So, while promising eorts are now underway to rationalize pre-apprenticeship in the building trades, anda number o clearly articulated standards or technicians have emerged, many clean energy certications, particularly

on the renewable side, are or advanced proessionals: architects, designers, and engineers with either postgraduate

training or a two- or our-year degree combined with many years o experience.11

3. Clean energy credentials defy organization

Even up this ar slope o clean energy pathways, career-advancing credentials are not clearly delineated. The

certications we ound, in act, dey organization. Again, multiple organizations and industries run across a host o

training systems and institutions. As the examples that ollow illustrate, some target occupational level (e.g., engineers

or technicians); some ocus on technologies (in renewables, eciency, or both). Some oer third-party verication, many

have alliances with particular training providers, all claim recognition by key industry leaders.

4. National standards can transcend the tangle of local workforce systems

The most useul models allow workers across a variety o training systems to earn certication in a particular industry

sector, based in most cases on a given technology. The clearest example is the North American Board o Certied

Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), which certies solar installers rom a variety o training systems (joint apprenticeship

training committees, community and technical colleges, community-based organizations, etc.) once they have

demonstrated prociency in the eld and passed the requisite examination.

WhatWeleaRned


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thestateofGreenskills:credentialinGandchaos9

5. Skill development needs to be rationalized at all levels

One criticism o such certications as oen levied against MSSC as NABCEP is that they set too high a bar.

But many proessional certications are intended to be a career capstone. The answer is not to lower the bar, but to

establish common intermediate benchmarks, and to build better on-ramps, particularly at the bottom. The challenge isto get more people particularly the poor and the working class up and over. Doing so requires, among other things,

organizing and aligning a transparent, accessible sequence o career-building credentials. This is critical i we are to

realize both the equity and the material promises o the new energy economy. O course it is not realistic to have all

green programs seek ANSI accreditation. But the process and the standardization that provides its value can be

mimicked at the state or regional level.12

6. Standardization can start locally

Indeed, improving the comparatively dismal U.S. perormance on skills development and upgrading need not wait or

the development o national skill standards and aligned certications in clean energy occupations. Local institutions can

think beyond local labor markets even as they establish locally relevant programs. Because registered apprenticeship

programs are a ulcrum or workorce development in the clean energy economy, labor unions should continue to (a)

align training with national industry standards in emerging technologies; and (b) gure out how to rationalize on-

ramps through legitimate pre-apprenticeship programs designed to expand and diversiy recruitment. For their part,

community and technical colleges need to avoid the pitalls o excessive customization, with its counterproductive

short-term orientation, and to protect the mobility o workers that comes rom broad and certiable occupational

qualications.

7. Assessment matters

A system o standards isnt much use without a system o assessment. And as credentialing becomes more

sophisticated, it makes sense in many cases to segregate the verication o worker competencies rom the training o

related skills. Developing a certication is a long, slow process. It requires a signicant budget, legal support, subjectmatter expertise, and industry cooperation. But without taking the time and trouble o establishing (and using) a ully

vetted, neutral, third-party evaluation, certication programs cannot necessarily guarantee impartial assessment, and

the associated credential can lack reliable meaning or both consumers individuals, business, government

and employers.


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Our list, divided roughly into renewables and eciency, starts with the classic North American Board or Certied Energy

Practitioners (solar and, under development, small wind); continues with another well-established group, the Association oEnergy Engineers (geothermal, though also, and primarily, building science/energy eciency); and moves on to preview some

new oerings rom the Electronics Technicians Association (combined solar, wind, geothermal). Because there is no national

certication or utility-scale wind (though the new Washington State skill standards or wind technicians are discussed later in

this document) we proceed to what are largely energy eciency certications.

On building eciency, we trolled a roiling sea o credentials and pulled out a number o key national certications. These

include, in no particular order, the sometimes inter-related residential eciency credentials rom the Building Perormance

Institute, Residential Energy Services Network, and North American Technician Excellence; the commercial Building Operators

Certication, developed by the Northwest Energy Eciency Council; and the LEED-based Green Building Certication

Institute.13

nationalceRtiFication

Individual proessional certication or workers may be oered by an international or national governing body, like the North

American Board o Certied Energy Practitioners. It can also begin with a local initiative, as in the early attempt o Iowas

community colleges to establish a nationally recognized certication or biouels training.14 In other cases, a de acto gold

standard exists, typically dened by a local institution working in concert with industry. Energy programs at the Bismarck State

College National Energy Center o Excellence, or example, are recognized by operators, utilities, and unions around the

country, and attract students rom 50 states.15

What ollows is a brie survey o some prominent national certications or workers in emerging clean energy industries; the

subsequent section provides examples o local institutions making change that could work at a national level.


15/41


North American Board of Certied Energy Practitioners (NABCEP)

The solar sector currently oers the most advanced certication model or renewable energy occupations. The North American

Board o Certied Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) has completed task analyses or two key occupations in this sector: solar

electric (photo-voltaic) system installers and solar thermal system installers. (NABCEP has also completed task analysis or small

wind, but does not yet certiy practitioners).16 A ormal task analysis, which identies an occupations critical tasks, knowledge,

and skills, unctions as a oundational document or credentialing assessment and provides the learning objectives or curriculum

development. NABCEP used its task analyses to build and launch a certication program that provides proessional certication

to a broad range o journeymen, contractors, and oremen.17 In addition, NABCEP developed an entry-level exam program or PV

systems, aimed at workers interested in getting into the eld.

The advantage o NABCEP is that the Board recognizes a variety o pathways into a solar career, and oers a wide variety o

experience and training combinations to qualiy to sit or its twice-yearly exams. The proessional installer credentials set a very

high bar, and are intended to recognize advanced skill and knowledge in the eld, serving as an indicator o excellence (andongoing skill development) or experienced installers. The entry-level PV exam sits at the other end o the training spectrum,

NABCEP Certifcation Requirements

PV Entry Level Exam Program Taking a course rom a registered provider.

For the list o providers:

www.nabcep.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/RegisteredProviders09162009.pd

PV Installer Certifcation Experience installing PV systems occurring at some point in the two years prior to

submitting an application or the exam in addition to completion o a Board-recognizedtraining program; OR

Be an existing licensed contractor in good standing in solar or electrical construction-

related areas with experience installing PV systems occurring at some point in the two

years prior to submitting an application or the exam in addition to completion o a

Board-recognized training program; OR

Four years o electrical construction-related experience working or a licensed

contractor, including experience installing PV systems occurring at some point in the

two years prior to submitting an application or the exam in addition to completion o a

Board-recognized training program; OR

Three years experience in a U.S. Dept. o Labor-approved electrical construction tradeapprentice program, including experience installing PV systems occurring at some

point in the two years prior to submitting an application or the exam in addition to

completion o a Board-recognized training program; OR

A two-year electrical construction-related, or electrical engineering technology, or

renewable energy technology/technician degree rom an educational institution or

our-year construction-related or engineering degree rom an educational institution,

including experience installing PV systems occurring at some point in the two years

prior to submitting an application or the exam.

Table1

NorthamericaNboardofcertifiedeNergypractitioNers (Nabcep) certificatioNrequiremeNts


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NABCEP Certifcation Requirements

Solar Thermal Installer Certifcation Four years o experience installing Solar Hot Water Systems; OR

Two years o experience installing Solar Pool Heating Systems in addition to

completion o a Board-recognized training program; OR

Two years o experience installing Solar Thermal Systems in addition to completion o

a Board-recognized training program; OR

Be an existing licensed contractor in good standing in solar or construction-related

areas with one year o experience installing Solar Thermal Systems; OR

Four years o HVAC, mechanical, pipe-tting, or plumbing-related experience working

or a licensed contractor, including one year o experience installing Solar Thermal

systems; OR

Three years experience in a government/trade union-approved construction trade

apprentice program, including one year o experience installing Solar Thermal

Systems; OR

A two-year construction-related, or engineering technology, or renewable energy

technology/technician degree rom an accredited educational institution plus one year

o experience installing Solar Thermal Systems; OR

A our-year engineering degree rom an accredited educational institution, including

one year o experience installing Solar Thermal Systems; OR

NABCEP Solar PV Installer Certication; ANDSixteen hours o Board-recognized training; AND

Installation o at least two solar hot water systems. These two systems require

permitting and inspection process by a permitting authority, but in the absence o

such, an appropriate underwriter is authorized to provide an inspection certicate.

In regions where neither o these inspection options exist, the Application Review

Committee will judge experience based on supplied documentation.

marking completion o a standardized instructional program in basic concepts and skill sets or PV installation. This is abenchmark o sorts, rather than a proessional certication. NABCEP oers no intermediate credentials, although many o these

are actually traditional credentials that can be earned within a particular training system an applied associate degree, or

example, or an electricians journey card.

Organizations training or some or all o NABCEP certications include regional leaders like Solar Energy International (CO), the

Midwest Renewable Energy Association (WI), and the Florida Solar Electric Center. Other accepted instructional paths include

college and university programs, ormal apprenticeships (JATCs are requent partners here), and manuacturer training.

Table1continued


17/41


Association of Energy Engineers (AEE)

The Association o Energy Engineers (AEE), an international society whose certications are recognized by USDOE and USAID,among others, has by ar the most clearly articulated and elaborate set o technical certications or clean energy occupations.

To an even greater degree than NABCEP solar installation credentials, AEE certications in energy and building management

are aimed at highly educated, deeply experienced practitioners. Candidates must take AEE preparatory seminars and sit or

a rigorous examination, ollowed by demonstration o continuing education and skill development. While these are excellent

standards that promote expertise in the eld, this Olympian view oers little perspective on establishing and coordinating

benchmarks or individual training programs.

AEE Certifcation Requirements

Certifed Energy Manager A our-year engineering or architectural degree, or a registered Proessional Engineer(P.E.) or Registered Architect (R.A.), with at least three years experience in energy

engineering or energy management; OR

A our-year business or related degree, with at least ve years experience in energy

engineering or energy management; OR

A two-year technical degree, with eight years experience in energy engineering or

energy management; OR

Ten years or more o veried experience in energy engineering or energy

management.

Certifed Sustainable Development

Proessional

A our-year engineering or architectural degree rom an accredited university or

college and/or the current status o P.E. or R.A. or Certied Energy Manager (CEM),

with at least three years veried experience in energy eciency and pollution

prevention, or sustainable development; OR

A our-year degree in business or related degree rom an accredited university or

college, with at least ve years veried experience in energy eciency and pollution

prevention, or sustainable development; OR

A two-year technical degree rom an accredited college, with at least eight years

veried experience in energy eciency and pollution prevention, or sustainable

development; OR

Ten years or more o veried experience in energy eciency and pollution prevention,or sustainable development.

Certifed Carbon Reduction

Manager

A our-year engineering or architectural degree, and/or the current status o Certied

Energy Manager (CEM) in good standing; OR

A our-year business or related degree, with at least three years experience in energy/

carbon management; OR

A two-year technical degree, with at least ve years experience in energy/carbon

management; OR

Eight years or more o veried experience in energy/carbon management.

Table2

associatioNofeNergyeNgiNeers (aee) certificatioNrequiremeNts


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Certifed Energy Auditor A our-year degree rom an accredited university or college in engineering or

architecture, or be a registered Proessional Engineer (P.E.) or Registered Architect(R.A.). In addition, the applicant must have at least three years o veriable experience

in energy auditing, energy management, acility management, or experience related to


A our-year non-engineering degree, with at least our years o veriable experience in

energy auditing, energy management, acility management, or experience related to


A two-year technical degree, with at least ve years o veriable experience in energy

auditing, energy management, acility management, or experience related to energy

management; OR

Ten years o veriable experience in energy auditing, energy management, acility

management, or experience related to energy management; OR

The current status o Certied Energy Manager (CEM).

Certifed Building Commissioning

Proessional

A our-year degree rom an accredited university or college in science, engineering,

architecture, business, law, nance, or related eld, or be a registered Proessional

Engineer (P.E.) or Registered Architect (R.A.). In addition, the applicant must have at

least three years experience in HVAC or process engineering design, architecture,

construction project management, acilities management, testing, adjusting and

balancing, or building commissioning; OR

A two-year technical degree, or our-year non-technical degree rom an accredited

university or college in a eld not specied above, with ve years experience in HVACor process engineering design, architecture, construction project management,

acilities management, or testing, adjusting and balancing, or building

commissioning; OR

Ten years or more o veried experience in HVAC or process engineering design,

architecture, construction project management, acilities management, or testing,

adjusting and balancing, or building commissioning; OR


Certifed Business Energy

Proessional

A our-year degree rom an accredited university or college in business/marketing,

engineering or architecture, or be a registered Proessional Engineer (P.E.) or

Registered Architect (R.A.). In addition, the applicant must have at least two years oexperience in business/marketing/management/sales in the energy eld; OR

A our-year non-technical degree rom an accredited university or college, with at least

three years experience in business/marketing/management/sales in the energy

eld; OR

A two-year technical degree rom an accredited college, with at least ve years

experience in business/marketing/management/sales in the energy eld; OR

Eight years o experience in business/marketing/management/sales in the energy

eld; OR


Table2continued


19/41



Certifed Measurement and

Verifcation Proessional

A our-year degree rom an accredited university or college in science, engineering,

architecture, business, law, nance, or related eld, or be a registered ProessionalEngineer (P.E.) or Registered Architect (R.A.). In addition, the applicant must have

at least three years experience in energy or building or acility management, or

measurement and verication; OR

A two-year technical degree or a our-year non-technical degree rom an accredited

university or college in a eld not specied above, with ve years experience in energy

or building or acility management, or measurement and verication; OR

Ten years or more o veried experience in energy or building or acility management,

or measurement and verication; OR


Certifed Energy Procurement

Proessional

A our-year degree rom accredited university or college in science, engineering,

architecture, business, law, nance, or related eld, or be a registered Proessional

Engineer (P.E.) or Registered Architect (R.A.). In addition, the applicant must have

at least three years experience in energy or building or acility management, or real

estate, or procurement, or brokering; OR

A two-year technical degree or a our-year degree in a eld not specied above, with

ve years experience in energy or building or acility management, or real estate, or

procurement, or brokering; OR

Ten years or more o veried experience in energy or building or acility management,

or real estate, or procurement, or brokering; OR


Certifed Lighting Eciency

Proessional

A our-year engineering or architectural degree rom an accredited university or

college, and/or be a registered Proessional Engineer (P.E.), and/or a Registered

Architect (R.A.), and/or a Certied Energy Manager (CEM), with at least three years

experience in lighting eciency; OR

A our-year business or related degree rom an accredited university or college, with at

least ve years experience in lighting eciency; OR

A two-year technical degree rom an accredited college, with eight years veried

experience in lighting eciency; OR

Ten years or more o veried experience in lighting eciency.

Distributed Generation Certifed

Proessional

A our-year degree in science, engineering, architecture, business, law, nance, or

related eld and/or be a registered Proessional Engineer (P.E.), with at least three

years experience in cogeneration or distributed generation; OR

A two-year technical degree or a our-year non-technical degree, with at least ve

years experience in cogeneration or distributed generation; OR

Ten years or more o veried experience in cogeneration or distributed

generation; OR


Table2continued


20/41



Certifed Green Building Engineer A Proessional Engineering (P.E.) License (*U.S. only) AND a Certied Energy Manager

(CEM) registration.

Certifed GeoExchange Designer A our-year engineering degree and/or be a registered Proessional Engineer (P.E.),

and/or a Registered Architect (R.A.), with at least three years o combined experience

in the commercial geothermal heat pump design and heating, ventilating, and air

conditioning eld; OR

A our-year non-technical degree, with at least ve years o combined experience

in the commercial geothermal heat pump design and heating, ventilating, and air

conditioning eld; OR

A two-year technical degree, with at least eight years o combined experience in the

geothermal heat pump design and heating, ventilating, and air conditioning eld; OR

Ten years or more o veried combined experience in the commercial geothermal heat

pump design and heating, ventilating, and air conditioning eld.

Certifed Power Quality Proessional A our-year engineering degree and/or be a registered Proessional Engineer (P.E.),

with at least three years experience in power quality, energy or building or acility

management, or electrical design, engineering or contracting; OR

A our-year non-engineering degree, with at least ve years experience in power

quality, energy or building or acility management, or electrical design, engineering, or

contracting; OR

A two-year technical degree, with ve years experience in power quality, energy or

building or acility management, or electrical design, engineering, or contracting; OR

Ten years or more o veried experience in power quality, energy or building or acility

management, or electrical design, engineering, or contracting; OR


Table2continued


21/41


22/41

Building Performance Institute (BPI)

Founded 25 years ago as an independent third party aiming

to veriy worker skills in weatherization and the building

trades, the Building Perormance Institute (BPI) now oers an

integrated certication, accreditation, and quality assurance

program that works with local training aliates around the

country to certiy building perormance technicians.

While there are no ormal prerequisites or BPI certication,

the Institute strongly recommends that candidates have

some training and experience in the building perormance

industry beore attempting the exams. BPI certies a workers

competence to optimize building perormance in a particulararea, and the credentials are not designed to substitute or

trade training and certication in service and installation skills.



23/41


Table4

buildiNgperformaNceiNstitute (bpi) certificatioNrequiremeNts

BPI Certifcation Requirements

Building Analyst Proessional 100-question written examination and eld examination. Candidates need to

master BPIs Knowledge Essential Task List (KETL) a comprehensive list o related

knowledge, skills, and tasks, rom building science to proessional ethics; OR

HERS Certication (see RESNET); AND

BPI Building Analyst Proessional 50-question written examination; AND

BPI Building Analyst Proessional eld examination.

Envelope Proessional 100-question written examination and eld examination; OR

Any other BPI Certication; ANDBPI Envelope Proessional 50-question written examination; AND

BPI Envelope Proessional eld examination.

Manuactured Housing Proessional 100-question written examination and eld examination; OR

Any other BPI Certication: AND

BPI Manuactured Housing Proessional 50-question written examination; AND

BPI Manuactured Housing Proessional eld examination.

Heating Proessional 100-question written examination and eld examination; OR

Any other BPI Certication; AND

BPI Heating Proessional 50-question written examination; AND

BPI Heating Proessional eld examination; OR

NATE Heating Service Certication (See NATE); AND

BPI Heating Proessional 50-question written examination; AND

BPI Heating Proessional eld examination.

A/C or Heat Pump Proessional 40 CFR Section 608 Type II or Universal; AND

BPI A/C or Heat Pump Proessional 50-question written examination; AND

NATE AC Service or NATE Heat Pump Service (See NATE) 100-question written

examination; AND

BPI A/C or Heat Pump Proessional eld examination.

Multi-Family Building Analyst

Proessional

Certication model or multi-amily buildings (typically 5+ residential units) is not ully

articulated online at this time.

Energy Ecient Multi-Family

Building Operations Specialist



Multi-Family Hydronic Heating

System Design Proessional



Multi-Family Advanced Heating Plant

Technician




24/41


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North American Technician Excellence (NATE)

North American Technician Excellence (NATE) is an industry organization that certies heating, ventilation, air conditioning,

and rerigeration technicians.18 Parsing skills into 21 Knowledge Areas o Technician Expertise (KATEs), NATE oers certication

exams or installation, service, and senior technicians. Specialties are: Air Conditioning, Air Distribution, Air-to-Air Heat Pumps,

Gas Furnaces, Oil Furnaces, Hydronics Gas, Hydronics Oil, Light Commercial Rerigeration, and Commercial Rerigeration.

Senior technicians are certied HVAC eciency analysts.

NATE Certifcation Requirements

Installation Technician Core installation exam; AND

One specialty exam; AND

No ormal pre-requisites, though NATE suggests some technical training and one year

o experience to pass tests, which are based on applied knowledge.

Service Technician Core service exam; AND

One specialty exam; AND

No ormal pre-requisites, though NATE suggests some technical training and two

years o experience to pass tests, which are based on applied knowledge.

Senior Technician:

HVAC Eciency Analyst

Pass a 100-question test or HVAC Eciency Analyst Senior; AND

Candidate shall hold two certications by NATE in Service Sector Specialties; AND

Five years experience (suggested).

Table6

NorthamericaNtechNiciaNexcelleNce (Nate) certificatioNrequiremeNts


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Building Operators Certication (BOC)

Designed or commercial building operators, Building Operators Certication (BOC) is a proessional continuing education

program created by the Northwest Energy Eciency Council. BOC certication ollows competency-based training and

assessment at sites across the country, including technical colleges, utility-unded programs, and regional training institutes.19

The programs which upgrade participants skills in, e.g., electrical, HVAC and lighting systems; indoor air quality; environmental

health and saety; and energy conservation target a variety o career levels, rom engineers to energy managers, technicians

to architects.

BOC Certifcation Requirements

Building Operator CertifcationLevel I

Completion o eight one-day classes and an accompanying series o acility-basedprojects, AND passing the BOC exams;

Candidates must also have:

A high school diploma or GED; AND

Two or more years o experience working in operations and maintenance o a

commercial or institutional acility; OR


A minimum o one year o experience working in operations and maintenance o a

commercial or institutional acility; AND

One year o technical college level education in acilities engineering related

program; OR


Two or more years o experience in energy management o acilities with a ocus on

operations and maintenance.

Building Operator Certifcation

Level II

Completion o seven one-day classes and an accompanying series o acility-based

projects, AND passing the BOC exams;

Candidates must also have:


A technical degree and three years o experience working in operations and

maintenance o a commercial or institutional acility; OR


A union membership at journey level and three years o experience; OR


BOC Level I certication and our years o experience.

Table7

buildiNgoperatorscertificatioN (boc) requiremeNts


27/41


Green Building Certication Institute (GBCI)

While the U.S. Green Building Councils Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) manages the storied Green

Building Rating Systems, the Green Building Certication Institute (GBCI) independently administers the LEED proessional

credentialing program, including exam development, application, registration, and delivery. The separation o these two

unctions refects GBCIs commitment to objectively measuring standardized skill sets, and brings their certications in line with

the ANSI accreditation they are seeking. GBCI certication refects a high level o proessional achievement, but requires no

ormal associated training all reerences are ree and downloadable. As a stand-alone credential, the LEED Green Associate

refects GBCIs interest in developing a broad green building sector which includes, e.g., leasing agents, product salespeople,

and real estate brokers. This ground-foor credential, which signies basic knowledge o green design, construction, and

operations, is also designed as the rst step to a LEED AP. AP certication is a technical credential that requires advanced

knowledge o green building practices and specialization in a particular LEED Rating System: Operations & Maintenance;

Homes; Building Design & Construction; Interior Design & Construction; and, starting in 2010, Neighborhood Development

(recommissioning).

GBCI Certifcation Requirements

LEED Green Associate Passing the Green Associate exam; AND

Documented involvement on a LEED-registered project; OR

Passing the Green Associate exam; AND

Employment (or previous employment) in a sustainable eld o work; OR

Passing the Green Associate exam; AND

Engagement in (or completion o) an education program that addresses green

building principles.

LEED AP Passing the two-part LEED AP exam (part one is the Green Associate exam; part

two is a specialty exam based on one o the LEED Rating Systems: Operations &

Maintenance; Homes; Building Design & Construction; Interior Design & Construction;

and, starting in 2010, Neighborhood Development (recommissioning)); AND

Documented proessional experience on a LEED project within the last three years.

LEED Fellow Under development. GBCI imagines LEED Fellows as the eminences gris o the green

building eld, leading proessionals distinguished by deep and mighty contributions to

common standards o practice.

Table8

greeNbuildiNgcertificatioNiNstitute (gbci) certificatioNrequiremeNts


28/41


localmodels, nationalpRospects

There are lots o models around the country or, rather, there are lots o olks trying to develop renewable energy or energy

eciency curricula and train workers per industry demand. A ew are doing so in model ways (i.e., conducting labor market

studies, building career pathways, talking to labor and community and industry, etc.), including Centralia College (WA),

Lakeshore Technical College (WI), Lane Community College (OR), and Los Angeles Trade and Technical College (CA).20

Regional eorts, too, are nudging workorce systems in the right direction, like the Midwestern Governors Associations New

Energy Jobs Platorm which calls on states to align credentials across training systems and promote region-wide career

pathways.21 These eorts might seem wholly inadequate, given national employment and climate crises. But just greening local

curricula to an agreed upon industry standard, and then articulating local certicates into regionally recognized associate

degrees would be a huge improvement, as would integrating the public workorce system and support services into clearly

delineated career pathways.22

Newer technologies, like wind and solar, are more likely to drive new programs and credentials. But in many cases relatedinstallation and operations jobs, like the majority o jobs in green building and eciency retrotting, are more obviously linked to

traditional trades training. In these cases, skills critical to renewable energy and energy eciency occupations (many traditional,

a ew greener) are best delivered through the original and, perhaps, strongest career-pathway apprenticeship. It isnt the

newness o any emerging green industry (or skill set) thats hard, but aligning the on-ramps or workers, which is dicult because

the system is complex, access opaque, and requirements are, or many, a high bar (requiring, e.g., onsite experience, math,

reading, and communications skills). Add to this the poorly dened and oen disconnected range o programs called pre-

apprenticeship.23

Two o the most interesting eorts in this regard one local, one national but system-specic attempt to standardize entry-

level training or the skilled trades: The Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP) Entry Level Construction Certicate,

and the AFL-CIO Multi-Cra Core Curriculum. Taking a more occupationally specic approach, two other initiatives are

drawing national attention or their work to standardize green skills training and assessment. Laborers International Union oNorth America (LIUNA) has developed a national model or residential weatherization training; and Washington State has been

steadily developing sound, up-to-date skill standards or energy industry jobs, including renewables. We outline these various

approaches below.

Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership:Entry Level Construction Certicate in Weatherization

The Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP)/Building Industry Group Skilled Trades Employment Partnership (BIG

STEP) is one o the nations preeminent labor-led sector partnerships. Working with unions, businesses, community groups

and the public workorce system, WRTP/BIG STEP has helped thousands o Milwaukee-area workers oen low-income

or unemployed women and people o color connect to good jobs and build their skills while also helping dozens o local

employers connect to the skilled workers they need.

WRTP/BIG STEPs Center o Excellence oers workers a wide range o support during their preparation or construction and

manuacturing careers, including academic assessments and individualized tutoring or apprenticeship exams; pre-employment

skills training and certication; and connections to community organizations that can assist with daycare, transportation, GED

prep, job readiness, and other services.24


29/41


WRTP/BIG STEP CENTER O F EXCE LLENCE Supports both for Workers and Contractors

Industry-Specific Assessment of Workers

Basic Skills and Pre-Employment Training

ELCS-Weatherization Certificate (Residential)

Apprenticeship Tutoring

Referral to Support Services

Direct Hire

ETO Database (Data Collection and Reporting Capacity)

Trade Apprenticeship Positions

Entry-level weatherization job Entry-level other jobEntry-level handler/helper

C ommunity and Faith

Based Organizations

Workforce

Development

Agencies

High Schools

and

Technical C olleges

Joint

Apprenticeship

C ommittees

Master-level, Crew Leaders, Superintendents

Journey-level

Electricians Journey-level

Carpenters Journey-level

LaborersJourney-level

Sheet Metal Workers

wrtp/bigstepcareerpathways


30/41


In addition to helping candidates up the pipeline into its

apprenticeship-prep program, WRTP/BIG STEP helps

participants nd jobs and succeed in them. The Centero Excellence maintains a database o apprenticeship-ready

workers, and can certiy them or construction projects with

residential hiring requirements. Once WRTP/BIG STEP

participants are placed, the Center o Excellence continues

to provide individualized support and evaluation to help

apprentices advance in their careers.

This model industry partnership oers a perect paradigm or

green-collar job training. It is no surprise, then, that WRTP/BIG

STEP has an answer to the weatherization challenge posed

by the recent and dramatic increase in ederal dollars: how to

move towards ensuring both the quality o jobs and the qualityo work in the traditionally low-end labor market or residential

construction.

Working with Community Action Programs and the Laborers

Union, WRTP/BIG STEP plans to bring their experience and

skill to the growing market or energy eciency retrotting

in southeastern Wisconsin, and, hopeully, statewide. Key

components include:

initialassessmentandcommunitypaRtneRs

One key to success, according to Associate Director Rhandi

Berth, is savvy skills assessment and strong partnerships: We

are able to quickly assess the needs o the people that come

through our door whether they require essential, basic,

or technical industry skills. We work with hundreds o local

community organizations that reer those that are work-ready

to us and provide support or workers we identiy as needing

help becoming job-ready.

employeR-dRiventRaininG

WRTP/BIG STEP partners with employers and training

providers to oer appropriate curriculum or their students.

Their experience in the residential construction sector

includes preparing workers or lead abatement and asbestos

removal and WHEDA building projects. By building on that

history and coordinating with appropriate agencies and

organizations, WRTP will expand its industry-recognized

Entry Level Construction Skills (ELCS) credential to include

a weatherization component. The ELCS-Weatherization

Certicate will assure contractors that graduates have the

skills they need to satisy the high standards o the program.

leveRaGedResouRces

WRTP/BIG STEP navigates a thicket o public and privateunding systems to leverage training dollars rom state,

ederal, and industry sources. WRTP, or example, is an eligible

provider or Workorce Investment Act programs; workers can

use their Individual Training Account (ITA) vouchers or

ELCS training.

WoRkeRsuppoRt: tutoRinG & mentoRinG

WRTP/BIG STEP has developed a model mentorship program

to support workers entering the construction industry. It is

well known that new workers do better on the job when they

have the support o an experienced worker to guide and

advise them, but ew organizations run successul mentoring

programs. WRTP/BIG STEP matches every new worker with

a mentor. These mentors are senior workers whose primary

relationship with their mentee is supportive they are not a

supervisor or a trainer who may have conficted relationships

with their mentee. Mentors can spot early signs o trouble and

WRTP can then work with all parties to nd the appropriate

resources to help the mentee succeed relying on community

partners, union allies, or others, as appropriate.

The WRTP/BIG STEP commitment to helping workers enter

into lasting careers led to the development o a successultutoring program or passing apprenticeship tests. The Center

o Excellence helps workers gain the math, science, and other

skills they need to enter the building and construction trades.

Hundreds o graduates have been placed in apprenticeship

programs thanks to fexible tutoring schedules and individually

tailored curricula.

laBoRpaRtneRs

WRTP/BIG STEP has a longstanding relationship with

the Laborers Union, Local 113. That union has a residentialconstruction package rate o about $20 per hour, which

includes pension and health care benets. By working

with contractors aliated with the Laborers in residential

weatherization, WRTP can oer access to excellent training

and support or workers.25

Earning an ELCS-Weatherization Certicate can be a

gateway to a decent job in residential energy eciency, i

weatherization programs are implemented with reasonable

labor standards, or the rst step on a pathway rom residential-

sector construction to good jobs on the commercial side,

particularly in green building and retrotting.


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Laborers Interational Union of North America (LIUNA):Weatherization Training Pathways

The Laborers are tackling the challenge o residential weatherization at a national level i.e., bringing small traditional programs,

typically run by Community Action Programs, to scale; ocusing on high-road contractors to assure both quality o jobs and

quality o work; and ensuring that a dramatically expanded weatherization workorce has opportunities or career advancement

in the construction sector.

Based on a successul pilot in Newark, New Jersey, run under a Minority Outreach Program grant in partnership with the

Garden State Alliance or a New Economy, LIUNA developed a Weatherization Training Program (WTP) that they are working

to implement nationwide. The LIUNA program bees up DOEs core competencies or weatherization with greener and more

sophisticated construction skills, including environmental remediation. The comprehensive curriculum moves rom general

construction skills through environmental hazard identication and abatement to weatherization installation, testing, and

auditing. Using their sophisticated education inrastructure (70 acilities around the country as well as mobile training units), the

Laborers plan to train through their locals in partnership with community-based organizations. Prospects are good not only or

moving towards critical scale and quality o energy eciency work, but or weatherization workers to earn amily-supporting

wages or transition to other construction careers, including those in the better-paid commercial sector. In a relatively short

time rame, LIUNA/WTP can produce legions o credentialed Technician/Installers, Weatherization Supervisors, and Energy

Auditors. What is not clear at this point is how this weatherization training will link to a national certication, or i the Laborers

can otherwise position their credentials as the common currency o residential retrotting in general.


aFl-cio: multi-cRaFtcoRecuRRiculum

The AFL-CIO Building Trades Multi-Cra Core Curriculumproposes to institute at a national level an apprenticeship

prep program similar to WRTPs Entry Level Construction

Skills program. Sean McGarvey, Secretary Treasurer o the

national Building and Construction Trades Department,

AFL-CIO, describes the Core Curriculum as an innovative

training program that provides a gateway rom high school

or community college to joint labor-management registered

apprenticeships throughout the United States. The Core

Curriculum is also designed to provide an on-ramp to careers

in the construction trades or adults exploring a career

transition. The Building Trades Core was developed as a

national industry credential by the national apprenticeship

and training directors in the construction industry to establish,or the rst time, a standardized pre-apprenticeship or entry

into any o the cras in the building trades. Given the current

slump in the construction industry, the program is only running

pilots in two Washington State skills center sites. When

economic recovery and green inrastructure development take

o, and the apprenticeship pipelines re-open, this promises to

be a welcoming, rationalized on-ramp to solid skills training or

an urban, underserved workorce that traditionally viewed the

trades as inaccessible.26


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Washington State: Energy Skill Standards

Other local examples could serve not as a national model so much as an actual national standard. The Northwest Energy

Eciency Councils Building Operators Certication program, or example, has gained some national recognition as a

benchmark or quality continuing education and skills upgrading. On the renewable side, another Northwest innovator, and one

with a traditionally systematic approach to workorce education and training, is Washington State.

An established leader in skill standards development, a solid analyst o green jobs and related labor markets, and an innovator in

community college bridge programming, Washington has in recent years turned its attention to the energy industry.27 The states

Center o Excellence or Energy Technology at Centralia College ounded in 2003 to address a shortage o skilled workers in

power generation elds has made great strides in rationalizing community and technical college programs leading to energy

industry careers.

The Energy Industry Skill Standards Project convenes the states public workorce system, labor unions, community and technical

colleges, and employers to develop standards that can serve as technical benchmarks or entrance to and success in related

careers. As part o this initiative (to speciy the critical work unctions, key activities, perormance indicators and knowledge,

skills, and abilities an individual needs to succeed in certain energy-related occupations), Centralias Center o Excellence just

released a comprehensive analysis o Skill Standards or Wind Technicians.

Not only can these standards serve as national metrics, but the process itsel is a textbook case o collaborative skill standards

development. Funded by the Pacic Mountain Workorce Development Councils Workorce Innovation in Regional Economic

Development (WIRED) Initiative, the Wind Technician project was led by the Center o Excellence in collaboration with the WSU

Extension Energy Program, and included a broad swath o labor, industry, and education partners.

To map and validate the skill standards, the Wind Technician team ollowed a process mandated by the State Board or

Community and Technical Colleges, including extensive research, ocus groups, surveys, expert analysis, and industry-wide

review. Because o this, and because o the commitment and ull participation o all partners, the project resulted in a widelyaccepted, industry-driven set o (voluntary) standards that colleges and unions agree to train to (and develop curriculum or),

and that will be a baseline or ongoing discussion and continuous improvement.


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Washingtons Industry Skill Panels bring business, labor, and education together in public-private partnerships to build a skilled

workorce in key industry sectors. The principles shaping the states energy skill standards are no dierent, including the basic

premise that experienced workers are the experts in their career eld and are best able to identiy the work perormed and the

skills, knowledge, and abilities required to be successul.28

washiNgtoNsiNdustryskillpaNels

Adapted rom Washington Work Force Training and Education Coordinating Board or Greener Pathways (COWS, 2008).


The standards report starts with a basic job description and moves through required credentials to task and unction analyses

o routine, crisis, and long-term scenarios. It also includes the projects SCANS (Secretarys Commission on Achieving Necessary

Skills) surveys that delineate pertinent oundational abilities rom basic academic skills to problem solving, working in teams, and

the use o technology. Final skill standards include perormance indicators (how do we know when the task is perormed well?);

technical knowledge (skills, abilities, tools); and employability skills.

Skill standards establish metrics or competent perormance in a particular job or activity; they do not measure or certiy an

individual workers level o competence. To be meaningul in the labor market, industry or occupational skill standards need

to be linked to voluntary, standardized assessments and certications.29 I this can be done on a national level, creating an

assessment and certication process based on the Washington Wind Technician standard and accessible through a variety o

training systems, the pay-o, or workers and employers, would be twoold: (1) mobility, as national recognition o skill standards

in career elds provides a common basis or certiying achievement against those standards, thereby allowing or the portability

o skills across geographic areas, companies and careers; and (2) rationality, as skill standards provide benchmarks or making

education and training decisions, shaping curricula and directing unds toward highest value education and

training investments.30


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The preceding description o key existing credentials or green jobs makes

the diversity and conusion o the system evident. American labor marketsystems work against establishing the sorts o clear credentials and

training paths that would serve both the interests o employers and Americas

working class. The current hot green moment makes it clear that the general

problem is exacerbated in the context o new jobs, or hopes or them, and

increasing investment and anticipation o a new energy uture.

Already, we see the general and longstanding problems being recreated in whole

new programs being set up one community college at a time, new standards

being trained to with no jobs or the workers who complete the training,

new initiatives and investments that arent even aware o existing workorce

training inrastructure, apprenticeships being established without sucient

understanding o the scale o demand or new workers in the industry.

But it may be that some o these existing initiatives and standards could help

rationalize and align the training system or new green jobs. And thats what we

need to seize on i were going to get rom here to the green training uture that

we want to build.

Whatwouldweactuallydointheareaofgreentraining,ifwecouldjustdo

itnow?First,andalways,wedstartwithactualjobsandanationalsystem

ofskillstandardstotrainworkerswheretheyreneeded.Federal leadership

would organize the discussion between industry, labor, and education leaders

to establish broadly endorsed skill standards. The ederal departments would

have t

Documents

Greener Skills: How Credentials Create Value in the Clean Energy Economy