US Community Colleges Offer Clean Energy Training
US Community Colleges Offer Clean Energy Training
Across the United States, students are now looking to community colleges for training in jobs related to climate change solutions. These include wind and solar energy, electrification, and protecting water and farmland.
For example, on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, students learn how to work on an electric vehicle (or EV) in a new technician program at Olive-Harvey College.
About 240 kilometers south, students at Danville Area Community College learn how to fix large wind turbines.
In Albuquerque, students learn how to work on solar panels at Central New Mexico Community College.
In Boston, Massachusetts, students at Roxbury Community College’s Center for Smart Building Technology learn how to strengthen buildings against extreme temperatures. They also learn how to build structures that contribute less to climate change.
Kyle Johnson is a 34-year-old student at Olive-Harvey College in Illinois. Johnson has long enjoyed working on gasoline-fueled cars. But automobiles are increasingly electric.
“When it came to EVs, I knew that the times are changing, and I didn’t want to get left behind,” he said. “Climate change has a lot to do with my decision,” he added.
