Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Education Leaders Release National Plan to Prepare Community College Students for Clean Economy Workforce (Bank of America Charitable Foundation)
Jobs for the Future, National Wildlife Federation, Bank of America and education leaders all across North America have released Greenprint: A Plan to Prepare Community College Students for Careers in the Clean Economy.
This plan comes at a critical time as President Obama's State of the Union Address last week called for a clean economy, good jobs for all, and free workforce education and training at the nation's 1,200 community colleges. Recently, 190 heads of state met in Paris for the COP-21 to address the need to curtail climate change and eliminate greenhouse gas pollution. This new report begins to address the challenge of linking workforce development and environmental quality in the U.S. and beyond.
Highlights include:
- Competitive employers require a workforce with 21st-century skills and sustainability basics. Workers need to be equipped with the new skills required for millions of new jobs that are eclipsing their older, fossil-fuel-based counterparts and providing comparatively better wages for adults across all demographics, including lower-skilled adults.
- America's workforce needs to have the skill sets to curtail carbon pollution. This will require rapidly scaling up innovations in dozens of industries -- and training workers to carry out these changes -- such as clean energy generation, distribution and storage; smarter grids; smarter transportation systems; more sustainable food and agriculture; improved forest management; restored coastal ecosystems; and closed loop manufacturing.
- Community colleges are uniquely positioned to help develop these skills in America's workforce. In the U.S., the majority of jobs requiring science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) will require education beyond high school, including that provided by community colleges. And for millions of adults, community colleges will provide the pathways into STEM jobs.(ii) The imperative for community colleges to prepare graduates with sustainability skills will only increase as these STEM fields become greener.
"Community colleges are on the frontlines of sustainability skills education, with nearly 40 percent pioneering educational initiatives that promote sustainability skills," explains Maria Flynn, senior vice president of Jobs for the Future. "These initiatives contribute to students' career potential, respond to local employer needs, support the health of the regional environment, and benefit the local economy."
"Imagine the possibilities if community colleges had all the support they need to equip the next-generation workforce with skills in areas such as clean energy generation, distribution and storage; lean and green manufacturing; and protection of water quality and wildlife," says Kevin Coyle, vice president of education of the National Wildlife Federation. "The Greenprint report illustrates the important roles that community college leaders will play in accelerating these positive trends and is something we hope that the world leaders at the COP-21 will pay attention to, embrace and support."
The Greenprint plan was created by thought leaders representing industry associations, student groups, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and higher education entities in the U.S. and Canada who participated in a national and statewide convenings as part of the Greenforce Initiative, organized by the National Wildlife Federation and Jobs for the Future with support from Bank of America Charitable Foundation, NASA, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, The Kendeda Fund and other donors.
We encourage community colleges and employers to discuss this new plan with hashtags #highered and #sustainability. The report is available at http://www.nwf.org/Greenforce-Initiative/Resources/Greenprint-Report.aspx.