Employment agencies plan to train 300 clean energy sector workers

A new program from a southern Maine workforce development agency aims to train hundreds of new workers for the clean energy industry.

Green Jobs for ME is managed by Coastal Counties Workforce Inc. and operated by Goodwill Northern New England. It is funded by a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.

David Wurm, senior director of employee services at Goodwill, said the program will target people underrepresented in construction and engineering professions.

The initiative will offer subsidized training, internships and study programs to job seekers and help connect workers with employers, Wurm said.

“Within this kind of renewable energy field, these two paths of construction and engineering are where we saw a pretty deep vein of both current jobs and future jobs,” Wurm said.

The groups plan to train more than 300 workers over the five-year program. The jobs include everything from entry-level workers to project managers, Wurm said.

There is a labor crunch in the construction industry across the country, according to Kelly Flagg, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Maine.

Programs like this can help workers get into in-demand jobs with transferable skills, Flagg said. Not every worker who comes out of the program will go directly to work in the renewable energy sector, but they will still be needed to work to support the industry, she added.

“A lot of the jobs we’re talking about are not necessarily what you would consider green jobs,” Flagg said.

However, building a solar farm or wind farm requires workers who can operate cranes, move earth and perform other tasks to ensure the investment can thrive, Flagg added.

“We support a wide range of professions, including electricians, solar installers and the like,” she said.