Resource Center

Instructions

The Resource Center is a curated collection of information organized around 7 green economy “Sectors” and 7 “Topics.” In time, more Sectors will be added. Topics represent those areas in which educators and workforce development professionals continue to seek direction.

You can search by sector or by topic. Or across all sectors and/or all topics.

You can also perform a keyword search of all resources on the top right of this page.

Overview

Solar

The solar industry is expected to show steady growth over the coming decade largely due to rising energy prices, advances in technology through public/private partnerships and investments, and continued enactment of federal and state policies and financial incentives. more >>

Wind

Wind power is considered a leading source of new electricity generation in the United States, with the potential of providing 20% of the nation’s energy needs by 2030. more >>

Green Building

The green building market has expanded five fold over the last three years to a $48 billion national market—and is projected to triple in the next five years. more >>

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is considered the foundation of a vibrant and sustainable green economy, and one of the most cost effective ways to lower energy consumption, reduce operating costs, and mitigate carbon emissions. more >>

Sustainability Education

Sustainability education refers generally to learning experiences that enable students to develop the knowledge, behaviors and skills to help create healthier ecosystems, social systems, and economies. For the purposes of the SEED Center, this includes resources to help build non-credit continuing education for the incumbent workforce and integrating sustainability curriculum into existing credit programs. more >>

Sustainable Ag., Food & Land

The Sustainable Ag., Food & Land sector covers the areas of organic farming, horticulture, culinary art, and landscaping. This sector includes organizations and resources that integrate environmental, social and economic factors into land use, food preparation, and land specific practices in an attempt to create a more sustainable future. more >>

General Clean Tech

The General Clean Tech sector is a space for resources that encompass multiple ‘green’ sectors. Many are applicable to the broader clean economy and sustainability-related technology and will serve the general clean tech community. Resources also provide valuable information on sectors that are experiencing substantive development in the sustainability realm, like manufacturing and smart grid. more >>

Transportation and Fuels

The Transportation & Fuels sector covers the area of electric and hybrid vehicle development and maintenance, other forms of alternative and sustainable transportation, natural gas, fuel cells, battery storage, and renewable fuels sources including ethanol, biodiesel, algae, and methane. more >>

Certifications and Industry Credentials

Certainly, one of the biggest challenges facing green educators is the rapid and mostly uncoordinated emergence of green certifications and credentials. more >>

Curricular Materials

These resources and materials have been vetted by industry and education experts, and while not in the form of specific educator tools, will assist in creating quality curricula for your classroom. more >>

You will find more specific educator tools (e.g. syllabi, lab manuals, lesson plans, special classroom projects, equipment lists, etc.) submitted by SEED member colleges in our Curricular Materials Sharing Portal.

Employment Industry Projections

While job training providers have been quite active in past years working with local industry to define the emerging green jobs market and potential job growth areas, most still struggle to forecast accurately regional occupational demand. The U.S. Department of Labor has made recent strides toward classifying green occupations and competencies which will help communities define and track green jobs (and colleges to design appropriate education and training programs). Given the uncertain renewable energy and efficiency industry outlook, and rapidly changing technologies, access to the most up-to-date industry studies and employment projections will be critical. more >>

Innovative Practices & Partnerships

The job creation potential of the green economy has led to some unique job training and economic development partnerships and collaborations. more >>

Professional Development Resources

This section includes promising facilitated learning opportunities, including “train the trainer” programs, standing conferences, and informal learning opportunities situated in practice for faculty and staff seeking to further their knowledge of industry trends and requirements. more >>

Policy & Funding Sources

Included you will find links and descriptions of agencies and organizations that typically fund sustainability and green job training initiatives as well as those that provide important information on national legislation and policies relevant to the clean energy sector. CHECK BACK AS MORE ARE ADDED. This section also highlights resources that provide guidance on how to supply input into program and grant design for certain agency solicitations. more >>

Skill sets, Competencies & Career Pathways

This section includes lists and assessments of skill sets and competencies tied to the green economy – across the broad industry as well as within specific sectors. It also includes some critical resources that colleges can use to align programs and facilitate student transitions. Included are green energy competency models and newly-developed career pathways that allow movement across educational and training programs. more >>

Sector:

Topic:

Featured Resources

Financing the Next Generation of Solar Workers: An Exploration of Workforce Training Program Sustainability in the Context of Reduced Public Funding

Recognizing that much of the public funding for solar training programs has already expired - despite a profusion of studies pointing to increased worker demand - The Solar Foundation, along with SolarTech and the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), collaborated on this paper to introduce a number of possible funding mechanisms designed to attract both public and private capital and efficiently allocate funds to solar workforce programs with the greatest need. This paper supplements the broader efforts of the SolarTech Workforce Innovations Collaborative (SWIC), which was a market-driven pilot program that took a systems approach to source, train, and place the right people in the right jobs at the right time.

AASHE: Campus Solar Photovoltaic Installations Database

A new database of hundreds of campus solar photovoltaic installations designed for higher education solar advocates to browse success stories at campuses of a similar type, size and location.

Best Practices Documents for Solar Instructor Training

The Best Practices documents, a compendium of national curriculum models of solar training, education and workforce development curriculum from The Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. (IREC), are available to help instructors enhance the quality of their existing solar education and training programs.

NABCEP: Photovoltaic Installer Resource Guide

This publication was written for NABCEP by industry leading subject matter experts and teachers, Bill Brooks and Jim Dunlop. It follows the NABCEP Solar Heating Job Task Analysis and is a useful tool for candidates preparing for both the NABCEP PV Entry Level and the NABCEP PV Installer Certification exams. It is also intended for use as an instructional reference for educators.

NABCEP: Solar Heating Installer Resource Guide

This publication was written for NABCEP by industry leading subject matter experts and teachers, Vaughan Woodruff and Chuck Marken. It follows the NABCEP Solar Heating Job Task Analysis and is a useful tool for candidates preparing for both the NABCEP Solar Heating Entry Level and the NABCEP Solar Heating Installer Certification exams. It is also intended for use as an instructional reference for educators.

North American Board of Certificed Energy Practictioners (NABCEP) Task Analysis for Solar Water and Pool Heating Systems Installation Contractor

This document presents a comprehensive task analysis for contractors installing solar water and pool heating systems on buildings. For the purposes of developing training curricula, assessment mechanisms and certification criteria, specific tasks are classified as either cognitive or psychomotor skills.

North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) PV Technical Sales Job Task Analysis

This document presents an in-depth Job Task Analysis for solar electric professionals who gather site specific information and analyze customer needs and energy usage for the purpose of advising and providing customers with the most appropriate proposal for a solar photovoltaic (PV) system given their situation.

North American Board of Certificed Energy Practictioners (NABCEP) Objectives and Task Analysis for the Solar Photovoltaic System Installer

This document presents an in-depth task analysis for practitioners who specify, install and maintain solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems and equipment.

North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) Solar PV Installer Certificate

The NABCEP PV installer certification is a voluntary certification that provides a set of national standards by which PV installers with skills and experience can distinguish themselves from their competition. Certification provides a measure of protection to the public by giving them a credential for judging the competency of practitioners.

Solar Energy Evolution and Diffusion Studies (SEEDS)

A new program administered by the DOE SunShot Initiative to support use-inspired research on solar energy innovation dynamics and technology adoption patterns.

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More Resources

Green Pathways Out of Poverty: Workforce Development Initiatives

This document is a product of that two-day meeting and links to resources recommended by Community of Practice members. It is meant to guide and support anyone seeking to create pathways out of poverty through green job training. Must sign up with Workforce3One.org to access website.

Illinois Green Economy Network (IGEN)

The Illinois Green Economy Network (IGEN), formerly known as the Illinois Community College Sustainability Network, is a vibrant and growing collaboration between the state's 48 community colleges. An initiative of the community college Presidents, this Network brings community colleges together to expand employment opportunities, improve human and environmental health, foster community engagement and accelerate market competitiveness to drive Illinois's emerging green economy.

Institute for Sustainable Power Quality (ISPQ) Accreditation of Training Programs

To ensure continuity, consistency, and quality in the delivery of training, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) is implementing the Institute for Sustainable Power Quality (ISPQ) framework of standards and metrics to provide a means to compare content, quality, and resources across a broad range of training programs covering renewable energy, energy efficiency and distributed generation technologies. This international framework ensures legitimacy of what’s being taught and by whom.

Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) Best Practices for Community Solar and Wind Generation Projects: Model Program Rules for Communities

This document helps explain how to structure community renewable energies projects that allow for ownership by many people within a community context. This model has been used successfully in many parts of the country and in other countries. These materials could be included in courses that explain how to increase sales and/or financing and implementation of renewable energy systems on a larger than individual home scale.

IREC 2009 Conference Presentations: New Ideas in Educating a Workforce in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency

Conference website includes more than 70 conference presentations addressing job forecasts and labor profiles, state and federal workforce initiatives, career pathways, training partnerships, model curriculum, standards, and new approaches to training in the rapidly growing green economy.

Job Opportunities for the Green Economy: A State-by-State Picture of Occupations that Gain from Green Investments

This report from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, examines 12 states and the people employed in occupations affected by six green economic strategies: building retrofitting, mass transit, energy-efficient automobiles, wind power, solar power and cellulosic biofuels. The report was commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and was released in cooperation with the Green Jobs for America Campaign, a partnership of the Sierra Club, Blue Green Alliance, United Steelworkers, NRDC and with the Center for American Progress and Green for All. Must sign up with Workforce3One.org to access website.

Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) BuildsGreen Energy Tool Kit

See how Los Angeles Community College District has implemented energy efficiency, green building and renewable energies on campus as a model for students, staff and the community. Includes descriptions of how LACCD is cost effectively moving to 100% renewable energies and conservation.

Making the Transition: Helping Workers and Communities Retool for the Clean Energy Economy

This report offers recommendations which form a worker and community transition program as part of federal climate legislation. It analyzes past and current transition programs, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and uses data to develop a proposal for a model climate transition policy. The recommendations focus on workers in carbon-intensive industries such as coal and fossil fuels, communities dependent on or affected by those industries, and low- and moderate-income consumers unable to cope with a temporary rise in energy prices. Must sign up with Workforce3One.org to access website.

Manufacturing Summit on Green Collar Jobs and Apprenticeship (November 2010)

The fourth annual Manufacturing Summit on Green Collar Jobs and Apprenticeship, hosted by Switzerland Trade & Investment Promotion and the National Institute for Metalworking Skills, took place in November, 2010. Senior level leaders addressed the skills deficit in U.S. manufacturing, and best practices, including the critical role of apprenticeship programs and the intersection of training and green collar jobs.

MDG (Millennium Development Goals) Insights Article: Green Jobs

A short overview of green jobs from an international perspective.

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