03/14/08 Learning About Renewables

Learning About Renewables. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. In the ever changing world, we see job popularity come and go. Years ago it was cool to go to school to be a doctor or lawyer. I was a music & theatre major. Now with the renewable industry beginning to bust at the seams, the job market for specialized individuals is wide open while training is still limited. Columbia Gorge Community College has one of the only programs in the nation devoted to bringing good recruits to the market. KANE: Currently there's just 3 colleges in the United States that offer this program and there's one in Alberta. LIERANCE: There's actually several of them that are jumping on the bandwagon and they'll have a program running by next year. But when we are talking renewable energy here we're talking about basically training people to do two things. First and foremost is to be an electronics technician and the second is to be prepared to work in the wind farms in this area, so they actually have two different routes they can go when they get out of here. That's Kristin Kane an advisor for the Renewable Energy Technology program and Tom Lierance, the EET instructor at the college. People looking for new opportunities should have a look at the program which is pulling a broad range of students. KANE: We have students who are all over the map. Right now we have a student who is in our high school running start program. He's doing this program and he's also in high school. He'll graduate with a high school diploma and also with his associates' degree in renewable energy. LIERANCE: We've had them up in their 50's last year. The oldest student this is year is about 44-45. KANE: And they seem to be coming from all different kinds of areas. This is a growing industry looking for skilled people and along with it comes a pretty decent paycheck. LIERANCE: Three of my electronics students from the last class we had, 2 years ago and they have been working in the wind industry for the last  let's say 18 to 20 months. They started in the neighborhood of about $15 an hour because the wind industry didn't know what they had and at this point in time, I know one of them is in the $30 dollar and hour range and the other to are in the $25 dollar and hour range. Sound like something you or your students at home might be interested in? Better hurry, applications are due March 24th. KANE: Because it's limited entry we have room for only around 32 students so there's an application process the students have to go through and those applications can be found on our website. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.cgcc.cc.or.us/Academics/RenewableEnergyTechnology.cfm www.harvestcleanenergy.org