Skip to content
Subscribe

Clean energy and green jobs in California

Published:

The California Energy Commission has a useful website called Clean Energy Workforce Training with information and links for those who want to get jobs in clean energy or further their existing careers. Its homepage lists training and certification providers, as well as cleantech associations. All of them can help job hunters find a green jobs position.

The Energy Commission has also provided 48 grants for cleantech training programs in California. You can view them on a map, rollover your county for a list of training programs, and then click-through the resulting list for information on that specific program. As one who has waded through far too many kludgy State of California websites where finding information is ponderously difficult, I must say, this site is a joy. It's modern, easy to use, and information is easy to find. (One note: the menu options are a bit hidden and are on the far left of the top image.)

Training programs include courses in Green Building pre-apprenticeship and retraining, Clean Energy pre-apprenticeship and retraining, as well as career advancement in both fields.  These courses are designed to find jobs for trainees, with a focus on real world applications and hands-on training. They include retrofitting, green plumbing, solar installation, and more. Some programs focus on training those in desperate straits. The Oakland Green Jobs Corps provides "green pathways out of poverty" with training in multiple cleantech areas. The Farmworker Institute of Education and Leadership Development in Kern County trains the unemployed and dislocated to be residential solar panel installers. The Northern Rural Training and Employment Consortium has training similar to Oakland's in eleven rural counties in Northern California. Some families will undoubtedly be lifted out of poverty because of training like this. Rather than being on public assistance, they will then be paying taxes. Long-term, this is money well spent.

The website also has a Guide to Employment in Clean Energy with links to multiple organizations providing information and listings of green jobs. These include a green job search engine, background information on the growing green jobs industry, and advice on how to land that first green job.

If you're a rock climber, then your job hunt is over.  Rope Partners was founded by a rock climber and specializes in servicing wind turbines. Most folks get a bit queasy thinking about dangling from a rope 200 feet in the air. But that's what rock climbers live for. So now they can service wind turbines, and get paid to climb. Business is booming. And if it's too windy to climb a turbine on a given day, they just head for a nearby cliff for some fun.

Adhere to the IVN etiquette

By posting a comment, you agree to adhere to our etiquette rules: No partisan attacks, no personal attacks, substantiate your sources, no self-promotion.

Contact IVN

Questions about this article or our coverage? Send us a message. A free IVN member account is required.

Message sent

Thanks, we’ll review it and get back to you if needed.

Message not sent

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.

Sign in to send a message

Messages are tied to your IVN member account. Signing in is free and takes a few seconds.

Contact IVN

Questions about this article or our coverage? Send us a message. A free IVN member account is required.

Message sent

Thanks, we’ll review it and get back to you if needed.

Message not sent

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.

Sign in to send a message

Messages are tied to your IVN member account. Signing in is free and takes a few seconds.

Republish this article

Republishing guidelines

Republish IVN articles for free. Independent Voter News articles may be republished online or in print under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, on these terms:

  1. Credit the author and IVN. Keep the byline ("By Author Name, Independent Voter News") and the attribution note at the end, which links to the original.
  2. Keep the meaning. You may update time and place references and apply your house style. You may trim for length, as long as the cuts don't change the meaning or misrepresent the author. Keep the headline. Mark any additions as your own (for example "Additional reporting by ...").
  3. Translations are welcome. Translate faithfully, add "Translated from English by [your outlet]", and tell us at editor@ivn.us.
  4. Keep the links, including the link to the original article.
  5. Keep the tracking image. The HTML includes a 1-pixel image that counts readers on your page. It collects no personal information.
  6. Photos and illustrations. Images credited to IVN may be used with this article only. Images credited to others (AP, Getty, Unsplash, Wikimedia and so on) stay under their owners' terms. Secure the rights or switch "Include images" off.
  7. Don't sell it. You can't sell our articles or sell ads specifically against them. Your normal site advertising is fine.
  8. No implied endorsement. Don't suggest that IVN or the author endorses you, your candidates or your causes, or that donations to you support IVN.
  9. Keep labels. Opinion or analysis pieces keep that label.
  10. Point search engines to the original. Where your CMS allows, set the canonical URL to the original IVN article.
  11. No bulk or automated republishing, and don't submit our articles to aggregators (Apple News, Google News, MSN) as your own.
  12. Corrections and removals. Update your copy when we correct it, and remove it promptly if we ask. We'll contact you at the email you give us.
  13. Questions or print republication: editor@ivn.us.

IVN staff: fill in who you're inviting above, then create the invite.

Preparing the article

Clean energy and green jobs in California

Choose a format
  • HTML
  • Email HTML
  • Markdown
  • Formatted (.docx)
  • Plain text
  • WordPress blocks
  • PDF
Choose a platform

Photos credited to others need their owners' permission.

To for

Republishing somewhere else? Questions? editor@ivn.us