Quick status report on our MassGREEN Initiative Weatherization Installer Course:
1. The expert review of our curriculum is complete and, as a result, the Weatherization Installer Course has been dubbed by our reviewers as “impressive,” “unique,” “comprehensive,” and reflective of the very best practices in the weatherization field. (Our thanks to Peter Talmage, David Fuller, and Peter Wingate for their time and expertise!)
2. All text materials have been very professionally rendered and have gone to the printer.
3. Our four pilot colleges (STCC, Greenfield CC, North Shore CC, and Bristol CC) now have weatherization training facilities that are fully equipped with what seems like every conceivable weatherization training prop and structural mock-up both known to modern man and sanctioned by BPI. They also have all of the equipment they need to set up a classroom on site.
4. All imaginable necessary safety gear, hand tools, power tools, building materials, supplies, and technical tools are available and ready to put into action–including individual tool kits for use by students while taking the course.
5. Fourteen, well qualified instructor trainees (representing up to 12 of the state’s community colleges) will arrive here at STCC next Tuesday to participate in a comprehensive, 4-day Training of Trainers program using our brand new weatherization training space. Each has been supplied with a draft copy of the curriculum to review prior to TOT, and all seem very pleased to be part of the MassGREEN Initiative.
6. The TOT trainers (from CET and CSG) are primed and ready to work with our instructor trainees.
7. The food has been ordered, directional signs and name tags in the works, and last minute classroom set up scheduled.
8. The four pilot schools have launched their marketing plans for the course and are beginning to register students.
9. And, the four pilot courses will roll out between 9/28 and 10/14 according to each school’s scheduling.
WEATHERIZATION INSTALLER COURSE PILOT OFFERING SITES:
On Tuesday June 15th, 2010, we contacted four of our seven lead community colleges and offered them the opportunity to pilot our weatherization installer course in September. We are pleased to announce that all four are “on board” with this venture and are working diligently to finalize the many details associated with such an endeavor. Those four schools are:
Bristol Community College
Greenfield Community College
North Shore Community College
Springfield Technical Community College
At present, we expect to have our instructors trained and ready to go by no later than mid-September and the pilot course ready to roll out at all four colleges in late September.
WEATHERIZATION BUSINESS START-UP COURSE PILOT OFFERING SITES:
Also on Tuesday, we contacted the remaining three lead community colleges and offered them the opportunity to pilot our “So You Want to Start a Weatherization Business” course. This course is a vastly expanded version of the 3-hour course offered earlier this year (approx. 35 hours). We are pleased to announce that all three are ready and willing to do so. Those three schools are:
Berkshire Community College
Quinsigamond Community College
Roxbury Community College
The timing on the training of trainers and course roll-out is still to be determined. But, happily, the development of the curriculum is well under way. We certainly expect to have this course ready to go well before the end of this year. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.
Weatherization business sound very attractive. But there are many questions that should be considered before jumping into the weatherization business. For instance, what does “Weatherization” really mean? What skills, training and resources does it take to start and run your own weatherization contracting business in Massachusetts? What kind of equipment will you need to buy? How much does your initial investment need to be? What kind of work will you actually be doing, and what kind of training will you have to get in order to be successful? What licenses, certifications, and insurance are required?
Come hear about all these issues and others from industry professionals. These workshops are being sponsored by the MassGREEN Initiative and hosted by Community Colleges across the state to help you decide if this is really a business you can succeed in.
BOSTON – The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (CEC) today announced the first round of weatherization workshops under the center’s newly formed MassGREEN Initiative, which provides energy efficiency workforce training to citizens and businesses throughout the Commonwealth.
“I am pleased to see the first round of energy efficiency workforce training at our state’s community colleges on its way,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles, who chairs the CEC’s board of directors. “This is the beginning of a vital initiative to help citizens and businesses of the Commonwealth find a place in a major new industry in Massachusetts.”
“Entrepreneurial interest in the energy efficiency sector is growing dramatically in response to both state and national policy changes,” CEC Executive Director Patrick Cloney said. “The MassGREEN workshops will provide the state’s future energy efficiency entrepreneurs with the skills and knowledge they need to develop a successful weatherization enterprise.”
Five Massachusetts Community Colleges will host the program’s first set of workforce training workshops designed for contractors interested in starting a weatherization business or adding weatherization services to their existing business. Workshops will include an overview of the weatherization industry, business opportunities and planning, weatherization training and technical needs, and energy policy. Seats are limited to 30 participants per workshop; the cost of attending a workshop is $25.
Workshops will take place at the following locations:
Springfield Technical Community College
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Click here to sign up.
Greenfield Community College
Saturday, January 30, 2010
9 a.m. to noon.
Click here to sign up.
Bristol Community College
Thursday January 21, 2010
6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Click here to sign up.
North Shore Community College
Wednesday January 27, 2010
6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Click here to sign up.
Roxbury Community College
Saturday February 6, 2010
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Click here to sign up.
In July 2009, the CEC awarded Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) a three-year $1.87 million contract to coordinate energy efficiency workforce training programs under MassGREEN, the Center’s energy efficiency and building science skills initiative. STCC is the statewide clearinghouse for energy efficiency training activities, materials and services, and coordinates job training at regional centers based at STCC as well as Roxbury, Berkshire, Bristol, North Shore, Greenfield, and Quinsigamond Community Colleges.
The MassGREEN Initiative targets building contractors and unemployed construction trade workers looking to gain new green building skills, as well as unskilled or under-skilled workers who perform work for contractors. Future MassGREEN courses will include basic and advanced level weatherization training modules and are scheduled to start later this winter and early spring.
Funded with a portion of carbon allowance permit revenues under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and other monies, MassGREEN will ensure that Massachusetts has the quantity and quality of workers and firms needed to reach Governor Deval Patrick’s ambitious energy efficiency goals.
Energy efficiency is one of the largest and fastest growing clean energy sectors in Massachusetts, with the potential to create local jobs, reduce energy costs and reap environmental benefits.
Under the Green Communities Act of 2008, which put energy efficiency in direct competition with power generation for meeting the state’s energy needs, the Department of Energy Resources submitted three-year utility company energy efficiency plans to the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) for review in October. Tripling Massachusetts’s energy efficiency investment and generating savings of more than $6 billion for consumers while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the plans will make Massachusetts number one nationally in terms of energy efficiency investment and savings per capita. DPU action is expected at the end of this month.
Created by the Green Jobs Act of 2008, the CEC’s mission is to foster growth of the Massachusetts clean energy industry through seed grants to companies, universities, and nonprofit organizations; job training programs; and workforce development grants such as the one announced today. The CEC is also home to the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, which supports the installation of renewable energy technologies with funds provided by small renewable energy charges on electric bills.
The CEC awarded Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) 
a three-year $1.87 million contract to coordinate energy efficiency workforce training programs under the Center’s Energy Efficiency and Building Science Skills Initiative. STCC will be a statewide clearinghouse for energy efficiency training activities, materials and services, while coordinating job training at regional centers based at STCC as well as Roxbury, Berkshire, Bristol, North Shore, Greenfield, and Quinsigamond Community Colleges.
Funded with a portion of carbon allowance permit revenues under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and other monies, the program will ensure that Massachusetts has the quantity and quality of workers needed to reach Governor Patrick’s ambitious energy efficiency goals.
Working with energy service companies such as the Center for Ecological Technology and Conservation Services Group, STCC will have overall management responsibility for developing clean energy curricula and certification standards, and will deploy pilot programs to jumpstart energy efficiency training opportunities in the initial months of its contract.Â
Through the network of regional training centers, STCC will target two primary audiences: building contractors and unemployed trades people looking to gain new green building skills; and unskilled or under-skilled workers who will perform work for contractors. An energy efficiency training equipment “lending library” will be established at each regional training center, and STCC will offer business development assistance to contractors and sub-contractors interested in business start-up and expansion.
The MassGREEN Institute is located in STCC’s Andrew M. Scibelli Enterprise Center.