The approach to green employability by schools in the Hudson Valley spans the theoretical to the hands-on. But so far, while green is seen in some quarters as an economic pathway to a thriving future, mainstream companies are only slowly going green ”“ not exactly what recent college graduates with $100,000 in debt and an environmental bent are eager to hear.
“Major companies have one person who may be doing this green initiative right now, but if you talk about where are entry level jobs for new college graduates, most of them are in nonprofit or activist areas,” said Angelo Spillo director Pace University Environmental Center and academic advisor at Pleasantville
He said that the center is less concerned about environmentalism than its mission of preparing well-rounded graduates who can react to employment opportunities. “From our perspective, we don”™t teach necessarily in terms of providing jobs; we think more in terms of providing a well rounded education,” said Spillo “And that falls in well with the job market.”
He said students have largely landed jobs with companies that are environmentally active as part of the center”™s mission, as opposed to being part of mass-hires by Fortune 500 companies. “On the job market, it”™s a mixed bag,” said Spillo. He said some grads are working for New York City Parks, or area zoos and aquariums, others have found jobs in Africa and South America and one went to work in the environmental engineering branch at West Point.
He added that internships are widely viewed as a pathway to permanent employment. He said many students are choosing to seek graduate-level credentials and some are going to the Pace Environmental Law School, which is a separate institution from his bailiwick.
Some employment specialists say that the reality of job opportunities shows the snail”™s-pace switch to a so-called green economy in this area.
“This part of the country is not driving the growth of green industry at all,” said Jody Queen-Hubert, executive director of career services for Pace University. “That”™s in the part of the country where solar energy is more common and construction is happening, like the Sunbelt in the South and Southwest.”
She said in the Hudson Valley so far, green jobs in the narrow definition are more available in marketing, sale agents, communications and for environmental organizations.
But that is changing as a work force of trained professionals emerge from the grass roots up, say leaders at BOCES, which has created a green jobs training consortium spanning the region from Ulster county to Westchester.
“When you talk about green jobs, its almost embedded in many different industries,” said Howard Korn, director of the Career and Technical Center for Ulster County BOCES, which is spearheading the consortium. “For the automotive industry, you have trained technicians, you have electricians, these are already skilled workers, so its as much retraining a work force as creating specific jobs,” he said.
BOCES has also created education for specific jobs, with the Clean Energy Training Academy of the Hudson Valley teaching solar photovoltaics, solar thermal, geothermal and  small-scale wind energy at community colleges and at BOCES centers in Sullivan, Orange, Ulster, Putnam, and in Northern and Southern Westchester BOCES.
The classes lead to enough expertise students can sit for accreditation exams offered by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, known as NABCEP. “It”™s the credentialing agency for the renewable energy industry,” said Virginia Carrig, BOCES regional renewable energy education coordinator. “Being credentialed by NABCEP is a calling card for future employment in the industry.”
