About 20 California students sat in front of a portable office in a simple ceremony that could very well be a major turning point in their lives. Actually, there were supposed to be 42 students present, but 50 percent had already found jobs.
These students were part of two grant-funded projects to train green workers called Brownfields programs - that is, participants are trained to clean up sites with chemical contamination ("Brownfields"). The idea is that the clean-up of blighted areas should employ people that live in those areas; completed Brownfields projects add millions of dollars of revenue to local economies.
The grants were secured by EWD's Environmental Training Centers who also developed the curriculum and provided the training. This particular graduating class was unique in that, for the first time, it included students who had taken part in a new Green Building curriculum (constructing an environment in ways that are sustainable and energy saving). The typical Brownfields training lasts about six weeks, but 25 of the 42 students in this graduating class took an extra 160 hours in Green Building.
The training that took place has saved local remediation companies such as Kleinfelder Engineering, Tetra Tech, Ninyo and Moore and Waste Management Inc. thousands of dollars in training and has supplied highly skilled and motivated workers for their Brownfields projects. This investment is a great return for California's economic growth, as these workers can expect to make a very respectable living wage of $13 to $20 per hour and provide local industry with a stable, low turn-over and local green workforce.
For more information about EWD's Environmental Training Centers (ETC) and its programs, or if you need assistance with California state compliance issues related to environment, health, safety and homeland security, go to www.envtraining.org for low-cost or free technical assistance, or call Richard Della Valle at (925) 672-2209 or rdellavalle@cccewd.net.
Read the latest EWD Newsletter: Grow California to learn more about EWD's innovative industry programs.
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