New Ideas in Educating a Workforce in Renewable energy and Energy Efficiency

March 18, 2008

A National Conference for Educators and Trainers

Troy, NY – "Green" jobs are the foundation for the new clean energy sector emerging across the country. A unique and timely conference on "New Ideas in Educating a Workforce in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency is being sponsored by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). This national conference will take place on March 19 and 20, 2008 at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York.

Andrew Matonak, President of Hudson Valley Community College and NYSERDA will open the conference at 8:30 a.m. on the 19th at the Stapleton Theatre. NYSERDA President and CEO Paul D. Tonko will address the conference that evening at a reception being held from 5pm to 7pm at the Siek Campus Center. Mr. Tonko will speak about “green collar” workforce development and initiatives.

This conference builds on the first NYSERDA Workforce Education Conference, which was held in November 2006.  Conference sessions will be addressing best practices and teaching models for a wide variety of renewable energy and energy efficiency job sectors, and will focus on instructional strategies, curricula development and related practitioner training and market trends. 

There will be 16 conference sessions covering topics such as New Approaches to Course Delivery; Designing Training for Different Audiences; Lessons Learned from Training Programs; Hands-On Laboratories; Resources to Start or Improve Energy Programs; Green Jobs Corps; Training the Electrical Trades and many more sessions.

Plenary sessions include presentations by Dr. Roger Bezdek, author of the new report Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency: Economic Drivers for the 21st Century.  This report from the American Solar Energy Society shows that as many as one out of four  workers in the U.S. will be working in the renewable energy or energy efficiency industries by 2030.  The presentation develops current detailed estimates of the size of the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries in the U.S. and forecasts these to 2030 on the basis of alternate scenarios. 
 
Other plenary speakers include Dr. Tom Starrs from PPM Energy, describing how renewable energy markets are undergoing rapid expansion and Dr. James McKenney from the American Association of Community Colleges, addressing the role of Community Colleges in meeting our nation's current and future workforce needs. 

The conference is sponsored by NYSERDA and organized by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, the Partnership for Environmental Technology Education, and Hudson Valley Community College.

For additional information on the Renewable energy and Energy Efficiency conference, please visit Hudson Valley Community College.

NYSERDA Contact

Colleen Ryan
cqr@nyserda.ny.gov
Phone: 866-NYSERDA, Ext. 3359