Surge in solar hiring fuels training needs
by Emma Ritch / February 29, 2008
Source: Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/03/03/
story1.html?b=1204520400%5E1598029
The solar industry is giving rise to a new crop of small businesses, but these companies are hitting roadblocks when it comes to filling their “green collar” jobs. Despite unprecedented interest in clean technology, the small firms that make up most of the solar industry in the Bay Area are struggling because they need more workers who are trained and certified to complete the complex tasks associated with photovoltaic systems, according to the first comprehensive report on the solar industry in the Bay Area.
Solar firms expect a 17-percent hiring increase in the next 12 months, which translates into 1,200 more jobs. But three of four business owners can’t find entry-level help, and four of five employers can’t find enough experienced workers, according to the study prepared by the San Francisco Bay and Greater Silicon Valley Centers of Excellence. Many installers are training workers on the job, which has proved to be a costly way of doing business.
The “Bay Region Solar Industry Work Force Study,” scheduled for release in March, shows that 82 percent of solar companies in the Bay Area have fewer than 25 employees. The report, which includes input from the Solar Living Institute and California community colleges, highlights a critical need for trained solar workers.
“There’s a huge need for training installers and for us to ramp up our training programs,” says Lindsay Dailey, managing director of the Solar Living Institute, a nonprofit group focused on work force training. “This study confirms what we’ve been finding anecdotally. We have installers calling us all the time, saying they’re having trouble filling their jobs.”
More than half of the employers in the study say they are interested in a certification program for installers and a two-year program for designers and technicians. A certification and testing program for installers is in the works by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners.
But the current lack of such a certification is why Horizon Energy Systems in San Jose trains its workers on the job, says owner Bruce Gordon. “The experienced installers we’ve hired in the past have so many bad habits that we’d just as soon hire installers with no experience,” Gordon says.
The training can take about a year and be costly to the company, he says, but there’s no shortage of workers applying. The study shows that the Bay Area is home to 32 percent of the state’s solar-related companies, with 90 percent to 95 percent of those in design, installation, financing, sales and maintenance. The remaining jobs are in manufacturing. Between 6,900 and 8,000 people are employed in the solar sector in the study’s scope.
The positions employers expect the most growth from over the next 12 months are photovoltaic installers and sales representatives. “While the industry isn’t entirely new, the economy for solar — with the California Solar Initiative and the Million Solar Roofs program — has really stimulated the Bay Area,” Dailey says. “There’s a lot of startups and entrepreneurial activity. All of these small businesses are a great thing for the Bay Area.”
The study’s data can help community colleges and other solar programs make the case to federal and state agencies that the funding need for “green-collar” job training is great, Dailey says. Several area community colleges, including Mission and De Anza, are currently creating training programs.
The Green Jobs Act, passed as part of the 2007 Energy Bill, commits the federal government to funding job training for 35,000 people a year. The $125-million price tag for such a program would provide $25 million to train low-income people, $80 million for transitioning workers into green jobs and $20 million for renewable energy and energy-efficiency research.
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed traveled to Washington, D.C., Feb. 26 to Feb. 28 to lobby California’s Congressional delegation to allocate those funds to Silicon Valley soon. The night before he traveled, Reed spoke at a community forum that focused on making green-collar jobs accessible to the city’s low-income residents. He noted the city has 1,500 cleantech jobs filled in its goal of 25,000 green-collar jobs within 10 years.
“We already have people who need jobs, so we have to train them for these green-collar jobs,” Reed said, noting that on-the-job training was one of the factors keeping the price of solar systems too high for many homeowners.