Creating equitable workforce solutions in the clean energy industry
Growing Minnesota’s clean energy workforce is a critical step in achieving a more energy efficient future. Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) has been working to simultaneously grow this workforce while providing equitable employment opportunities to individuals who have historically been underrepresented in the industry through energy efficiency career training programs. At the recent Midwest Energy Solutions Conference hosted by Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance in Chicago, CEE’s Workforce Development team, along with Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy, received the Inspiring Efficiency Education award, which highlights the program’s efforts to promote these careers in energy efficiency and building science principles and create new opportunities to expand the workforce.
The Workforce Development program focuses on recruiting, training, and retaining Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latino, people of color, and women in the energy efficiency sector, building a workforce to deliver services that represents traditionally underserved markets. In Minnesota, the clean energy workforce has been dominated by white men. As of 2021, the breakdown showed that only 27.5% of the workforce were people of color and 27.4% were women.
CEE offers two types of training: a home energy career training path, funded by Xcel Energy, and a green construction training path, funded by Ramsey County and the City of Saint Paul and ARPA dollars. Both programs include paid, in-person training with the option to continue an internship and receive assistance in job placement after training is complete. CEE also partners with many local community organizations, including CAPI USA, Ujamaa Place, MIGIZI, Urban Roots, and others to provide wraparound support services that help participants with financial coaching and employment navigation, as well as transportation support during the training.
During the conference, CEE’s Sarah Northrup and Xcel Energy’s Husein Yussuf spoke about the results this program has seen in the past two years, including training 90 participants since the program launch in 2022, 92% of whom identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color and 30% as women. Of those 90 participants that completed training, 98% passed the Building Science Principles exam and close to 70% secured employment in the sector after their training and internship were complete.
“Our Workforce Development Program is striving to make a dent in workforce inequities that exist in our sector. With funding from Xcel Energy, we’ve been able to take a vision and turn it into a reality. This program’s success is a reflection not only of the high-quality instructors we have but also the strength of our partnerships with community-based organizations and cities. We could not do this work on our own. Our community-based partners provide critical support and have a wealth of knowledge in working with individuals who are facing obstacles to their career related to housing, justice involvement, or transportation," said Sarah Northrup, CEE's workforce program manager.
The Workforce Development program is expanding its career training programs to include HVAC training at St. Paul College with funding from Ramsey County’s Learn & Earn ARPA dollars. CEE recently celebrated the graduation of the first Green Construction cohort, which had 14 graduates with 6 moving on to a more intensive, 40-hour hands-on training. We’re looking forward to another cohort beginning training later this year. Looking to the future, the program plans to expand partnerships with employers, cities, and community-based organizations across the metro, to continue to improve the training services offered to participants and expand the program to serve greater Minnesota.