Information from the                                                                HOME>                                                                         FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Cape Cod Economic Development Council                                                                                                                                                 July 9, 2008

Barnstable County

Greening Cape Cod’s Workforce

County EDC and State Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund Create $500,000 Program

to Train Building Trades in Renewable Energy Technologies

BARNSTABLE COUNTY, MA -- The Cape Cod Economic Development Council (CCEDC) of Barnstable County has received a $400,000 Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund (WCTF) grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to cultivate a “green collar” workforce on Cape Cod. The funds will be used to help the Cape’s building trade companies increase their knowledge about how to select, market, procure, and install solar technologies and enhance their familiarity with technology, methods, and materials involving energy efficiency, conservation, and energy auditing. An additional $100,000 cash match by the CCEDC brings the total value of the three-year clean energy workforce training program to half a million dollars.

CCEDC Administrator Daniel Dray, the coordinator of the planning process, says, “How well Cape-based businesses capture the regional clean energy market depends upon the ability of building trade companies to educate their customers about emerging technologies and equipment and to install and maintain those systems. The training grant will help make this a reality.”

Megan Amsler, Executive Director of Cape and Islands Self-Reliance Corporation and a non-profit partner with the newly funded project, says the clean energy training program “will support the expansion of a regional workforce to handle the already increasing demand, stimulated by the rising cost of energy, for renewable energy systems and energy efficient materials and equipment.”

The WCTF was created with an initial pool of $11 million in 2006 to support workforce training needs in critical industries.  It is administered by the Commonwealth Corporation, an agency of the state’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.  In June 2007 the CCEDC received a $14,000 six-month WCTF planning grant which helped the CCEDC create a clean energy training plan for incumbent workers in the building trades and for individuals seeking to transition into a clean energy career.  Internships for technical high school students and Cape Cod Community College students with basic education and training in the field were also included.

Thirty building trade businesses signed on to the program as partners and provided information and data that were used to design the training plan.  Michael Cole, CEO of Cape Associates, Inc., a Cape-based building company, says “The program offers an opportunity for construction industry businesses to increase their knowledge about renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency and successfully compete with off-Cape firms looking to capture expanding markets for clean energy products and services.”  Skip Carleton, Vice President of Mid-Cape Home Centers, said “The building trades are eager to learn more about renewable energy technologies and applications involving energy efficiency.  A program like this will strengthen the Cape’s building trades and position them for a successful transition into a clean energy economy.”  And Joseph Valle of The Valle Group, a Falmouth-based design and build firm, believes the training program “will provide an opportunity for builders and related sub-contractors to expand their familiarity with solar technologies and energy efficient materials and equipment resulting in new products and services for the growing number of energy smart consumers on Cape Cod.”

The training program will include the design of courses focused on solar technologies and energy efficiency, conservation, and energy audits; installation workshops on solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar hot water systems; workshops on energy efficiency, conservation, and energy audits; clean energy skills training for technical high school students; and internships for technical high school students with basic knowledge of clean energy applications linking them with building trade businesses that are actively pursuing projects involving green markets.

The grant complements a clean energy curriculum that Cape Cod Community College, in partnership with the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School and Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School, implemented over the past four years leading to the creation of renewable energy courses at the college and the development of renewable energy courses and shop applications at the two technical high schools.

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