California awarded $3.5M for solar training
California Solar Training
The California Solar Training Partnership received $3.5 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a regional resource and training center.
The center will enable California to build a highly capable clean energy workforce and to maintain its worldwide leadership in solar energy.
The partnership, a joint effort of the Energy Commission, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the California Center of Sustainable Energy and others, will design a training curriculum and provide professional development for trainers in solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar heating and cooling technologies.
“The California Energy Commission is investing $500,000 in the California Solar Training Partnership, which will expand access to high-quality, standardized solar training for workers in the state,” said Energy Commission Chairman Karen Douglas. “Coupled with the statewide Go Solar California campaign, this partnership will advance the state’s efforts to meet these accelerated goals for renewable energy and will foster the creation of sustainable jobs.”
Professional development and curricular resources will be for California Community College faculty, Regional Occupational Programs (ROP), and high schools. The partnership is an additional component of the Clean Energy Workforce Training Program (CEWTP), the largest state-sponsored green jobs training program in the nation.
There has been a few radio shows on NPR about getting in to solar and taking advantage of all the latest programs offered at the community colleges. You can get good solar training in California through the community college system and ROP programs.
