DCSEU Program Connects Job Seekers to Green Industry

Mendocino County is responding to local socioeconomic challenges by expanding coordinated education and workforce development programs in sustainable construction and clean energy, preparing residents for anticipated geothermal energy jobs.

Access Code is a nonprofit in New York that gives young adults, particularly those from minority groups, instruction and resources to learn coding. This education promotes greater access to lucrative careers in the world of technology.

Civilian Climate Corps is developing a workforce of skilled construction workers by offering training to residents of low-income areas of New York City with high gun violence rates. The method allows them to fill a demand in the job market for green energy-related jobs while opening the market to those who are underemployed or unemployed.

A group of women are restoring abandoned chinampas (ancient Aztec floating farms) in and around Mexico City, combining indigenous farming techniques with university research partnerships to clean polluted waterways, protect endangered axolotls, revive sustainable year-round agriculture, and train a new generation of farmers in traditional methods.

South Dakota technical colleges partner closely with the renewable energy industry through specialized academic programs, responsive curriculum changes, and targeted scholarships, effectively addressing workforce shortages, achieving high-paying job placements, and catalyzing local economic growth.

Since 2015, the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, with support by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has worked to help dairy farmers transfer skills and opportunities to a new generation. Thus far, slmost 70 apprentices have graduated from the program as independent journeyworkers, and 59 farmer-apprentice pairs are currently active across the country.

Transfr is a tech company that provides free virtual reality job training and education to help facilitate employment opportunities. Transfr specifically focuses on providing these opportunities for disadvantaged people in places like domestic violence shelters, mental health clinics, juvenile detention centers and state correctional institutions where access to skill-building and further education is often hard to access. So far Transfr has 30 partnerships across 18 states.

“Grow your own” programs, like Reach University’s, are working to address teacher shortages, particularly in rural areas, by recruiting school employees who don’t have college or education degrees and giving them a chance to earn an undergraduate degree in education at just $75 a month. Participants take courses online and take 15 hours out of their work week to spend time observing and training in classrooms. So far 84% of all parishes across the state have signed up to take Reach trainees, which could put a significant dent in the statewide teacher vacancy issue.

In Kansas City, the nonprofit Pawsperity trains parents facing financial instability to groom dogs. Students of the program learn the basics of dog grooming four days a week and like skills one day each week to help break the cycle of poverty and prepare them for a job in the field.

MitiMeth trains Nigerians to harvest the invasive hyacinth seaweed and weave it into products like baskets and furniture. The business helps clean up waterways while securing consistent incomes for local residents.