- September 27, 2012
- COWS
- Laura Dresser & Joel Rogers
Human capital — workers’ skill and knowledge and creativity — has always anchored our vision of the green economy. But as a darkening economic and political horizon circumscribes this country’s exuberant green imaginings, plotting a course to our common future requires a new reckoning. Greener Pathways (2008) and Greener Skills (2010) charted the intersection of workforce development and a greener economy. This report, Greener Reality, explores not only the practice and promise at the crossroads, but equally importantly the economic, natural, and political context which surrounds that intersection. All the work at the corner — diverse in structure and quality as it is — faces the challenges of that context, a reality increasingly defined by rising temperatures and inequality, and declining true democracy. Our efforts, and those of many other thinkers, advocates, practitioners, and policy-makers invested in building a greener economy, is surrounded and often swamped by the fierce forces at play in American politics.
- July 27, 2011
- COWS
- The Corp Network
One of the most promising developments of the past several years is the emergence of a green economy. With environmental awareness growing across this country, green skills are being added to existing occupations (in fields such as energy and engineering) and new jobs that are primarily “green” are rapidly emerging. Green jobs — jobs that contribute to meeting the goal of achieving environmental sustainability — encompass a broad range of occupations and skill sets, from technical expertise in building, retrofitting, conservation, or planning, to business functions that support the work such as sales, customer service, or accounting. Some green jobs are new; others represent the retooling of existing occupations. Jobs range from entry level positions to those requiring advanced credentials, but most are “middle-skill,” requiring more than a high school degree but less than a four-year college education.
- March 25, 2010
- COWS
- Sarah White, Laura Dresser, and Joel Rogers
Everyone wants to coax green shoots from the economic badlands. And as the promise of green jobs has generated a flood of workforce initiatives, most everyone would like to put their hands on an atlas of green programs, skills, and credentials. But after two years of discussion and research, we’ve concluded that not only is developing a comprehensive, comprehensible map of “green” credentials impossible, it isn’t worth doing if it doesn’t get us closer to a coherent national system. And that is the central argument of this paper.
We believe current excitement about the new energy economy, and concern about national competitiveness, can be leveraged to finally achieve progress on reforming our fractured education and training system. Not only does this country need a far greater investment in workforce development, but skills — particularly at the lower end of the labor market — need to be delivered in very different ways. The priorities, as we see them, are more organization into navigable career pathways aligned with demand; curricular modularization and credentialing; and the integration of those social service supports necessary for advancement.
Critical to this reform agenda is the development of a national skill credentialing system. This paper makes the case for such a system. We outline an American skills agenda and call for a better, stronger, greener workforce system to support it. We describe what’s out there, focusing on national certifications in renewable energy and energy efficiency. And we conclude with a series of policy recommendations for federal, state, and workforce system stakeholders
- January 25, 2010
- COWS
- Sarah White and Kate Gordon
The current economic and energy crises place us at a crossroads. One path leads backward toward the kind of carbon-intensive, high-waste, low-road economic development strategies we have been following for decades. The other leads into a new clean energy future, where acting sustainably requires not only choosing lower-carbon, more environmentally friendly energy and fuel, but also choosing to pursue sustainable economic growth strategies that produce high-quality, family-supporting jobs and long-term prosperity. The Apollo Alliance and its partners believe the choice is clear: the old way did not work, and we must move in a new direction that is better for our workers, better for our communities, and better for our environment.