It was birthday #25 for the Midwest Annual Energy Fair. A workshop for MSTN instructors in the partnership focused on progress and activities of the partnership. IREC's Joe Sarubbi and Dr. Sarah White showed up and shared remarks about the SITN.

In a July 8 news release, the National Association of Counties (NACo) cited the workforce skills gap as THE top barrier to economic development in the U.S. With the national unemployment rate still hovering over 6 percent (and much higher in some areas), this is a sobering observation. NACo’s release focuses on collaboration as a key to this conundrum, and IREC couldn’t agree more.

The wildly popular SITN Solar Career Map - an online interactive tool that explores the many job opportunities available in the solar industry, is getting an upgrade. Improvements will kick off this fall with updated data for each of the map's 36 occupations, including at least one video from each of the Regional Training Providers.