Clean Energy Career Maps

IREC’s Career Maps are unique, interactive tools that educators, career advisors, job seekers, employers, policymakers, and workforce professionals can use to explore the many diverse careers offered across the growing clean energy industry. These maps—including the Solar Career Map, HVAC/R Map, and Green Buildings Career Map—describe dozens of careers as well as their various routes for advancement. Learn more about them below!

Green Buildings Career Map

The Green Buildings Career Map is a highly interactive tool that explores an industry exploding with job opportunities across four major sectors of the green buildings and energy efficiency industry, charting possible progression between those occupations, and identifying the sorts of credentials necessary to do them well.

This map is designed for a broad audience including educators, career advisors, job seekers, employers, policymakers, and workforce professionals. It demonstrates the breadth of the green buildings and energy efficiency industry, some of its critical occupations, and the multitude of advancement routes (over 300!) between jobs and sectors. The map also includes a section on “New-Collar” jobs within the industry—jobs that don’t require a traditional four-year degree, but rather rely on gaining skills through on-the-job training, high school technical education, on-the-job apprenticeships, vocational schools, technical certification programs, community colleges, the military, and internships. These 55 jobs have a mission to design, build, and operate high-quality, healthier, and more energy-efficient homes and commercial and industrial buildings.

Solar Career Map

IREC’s Solar Career Map explores an expanding universe of solar energy occupations, describing diverse jobs across the industry, charting possible progression between them, and identifying the sorts of credentials necessary to do them well. Designed to demonstrate the breadth of the industry and its critical occupations, as well as the necessity for integrated solar training in a variety of related fields, the Solar Career Map emerged from a simple vision: High-quality work and high-quality jobs are critical to building a robust, high-quality solar industry.

Use the Solar Career Map to explore 40 jobs across 4 industry sectors, and identify more than 60 routes to advancement between them. Additional opportunities for progress and promotion can be found within any given occupation on the map, and multi-sector pathways reinforce the idea of lifelong learning and the natural evolution of skills and interests.

The Solar Career Map has a broad audience: educators and career advisors, job seekers and employers, policymakers, and workforce professionals. It is a rich, data-driven tool. But it is designed to explore an industry rather than land a job. Consider it a window rather than a microscope, a kaleidoscope rather than a blueprint.

Careers in Climate Control Technology (HVAC/R) Map

IREC’s Careers in Climate Control Technology Map explores an industry exploding with job opportunities in heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration technologies (HVAC/R), describing diverse occupations across the industry, charting possible progression between them, and identifying the sorts of credentials necessary to do them well.

This interactive map is designed for a broad audience including educators, career advisors, job seekers, employers, policymakers, and workforce professionals. It demonstrates the breadth of the HVAC/R industry, some of its critical occupations, and the multitude of advancement routes (over 150!) between jobs and sectors. The map also includes a section on “green” jobs within the industry; these jobs have a mission to design, build, and operate high-quality, healthier, and more energy-efficient homes and commercial and industrial buildings.

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