Energy has been and continues to be a prominent feature of southwestern Pennsylvania’s economic portfolio. Now, federal and state initiatives are unlocking opportunities that build upon a decade of growth in our region’s clean energy sector, driving demand for workers and services and highlighting needs to strengthen Pennsylvania’s clean energy workforce development ecosystem.
Regional conversations with stakeholders, including convenings of the Clean Energy Workforce Roundtable, have taken place dozens of times in the past three years, enabling information sharing about current initiatives taking place in the region’s clean energy industry, identifying needs, and promoting collaborative next steps for priority issues. The work underscores the need to continue developing a comprehensive regional strategy to decarbonize southwestern Pennsylvania and create the energy economy of tomorrow.
This document includes advice passed along during conversations with Roundtable participants, insights gleaned from expert presentations on regional workforce research, and written notes collected after facilitated brainstorming activities on the region’s workforce development needs.
Number of Pages:
24
Regional Challenges and Opportunities Discussed:
- Improving ecosystem connectivity, global knowledge, and collaborative potential: as many new public and private sector approaches to addressing clean energy workforce demands emerge, it is vital for partners to compete together for funding, build stronger referral networks and employment pipelines, and learn from one another to address gaps in services.
- Improving visibility and accessibility of clean energy jobs: the clean energy workforce ecosystem is vast; however, many that contribute to or participate in the region’s clean energy workforce, as well as those who might join the growing sector, are unaware of their contributions. Increasing general awareness of clean energy sector opportunities and how to access them is needed.
- Addressing barriers to employment in clean energy jobs: Roundtable participants consistently raised the issues workers with barriers to employment face. Supportive service networks and employers that provide wraparound support for those experiencing transportation barriers, childcare needs, and a myriad of additional life events and experiences should be integrated into training and workplace systems.
- Expanding training opportunities, with employment on the other side: the workforce development ecosystem is continuously evolving to meet the needs of workers, employers, businesses and communities. With new federal and state programs supporting clean energy, roundtable participants continuously noted the need to advance a variety of training programs by enabling direct connections among programs, employers and job seekers.