National Wildlife Federation Interviews Jane Weissman: How Community Colleges Promote Clean Energy
How Community Colleges Can Expand Clean Energy Job Opportunities
IREC President/CEO Jane Weissman helped to create a plan towards the goal of graduating more than 20 million “global sustainability citizens” by 2025 called “Greenprint: A Plan to Prepare Community College Students for Careers in the Clean Economy.”
Weissman recently spoke with David Corsar, of the National Wildlife Federation, about the Greenprint, IREC, and the role of community colleges in supporting the clean energy economy.
DC: If a community college student is interested in going into clean energy or other related clean economy careers, what would you advise them to do and how can your organization help?
JW: Good question. One viewpoint we promote is for training and professional development opportunities to not necessarily be standalone ones, but be integrated into existing programs. So, for example, instead of somebody saying, “I want a solar installer training program” maybe a more sustainable approach would be “I want to become an electrician with solar installations as a specialty service and I want courses within that electrical program to train me on solar energy.”
Read the full interview
