Description
The Workforce Innovation Board of Ramsey County (WIB) recognizes the incredible opportunities in the green energy industry locally and decided to form an industry focused committee in 2021. It emerged from a workgroup that was started around the Building Green Saint Paul initiative (BGSP). The goal of BGSP was to begin to build an ecosystem of career pathways into green careers, with a focus on the union construction trades. BGSP aimed to tackle systemic barriers and implement apprenticeship readiness and similar programs through leveraging the skills, networks, resources and capacity of cross-sector partners. The WIB is leveraging its Construction-Green Jobs Committee, chaired by the Saint Paul Building and Construction Trades Council and comprised of both union and non-union representatives, to assess and bolster the ecosystem of career pathway programs related to construction and related green careers. In 2022 Ramsey County and the City of Saint Paul together committed over $16 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to new Earn and Lean Programs, including in the area of Construction and Green Careers. An RFP was released in the Fall of 2022 that will lead to new and/or expanded programs designed to assist underemployed and unemployed Saint Paul and Ramsey County residents to access construction in green careers.
In 2023 and 2024, Green Construction Career Training offered by the Center for Energy and the Environment (CEE) under the Earn and Learn Program had the following outcomes:
- 31 people completed training;
- 12 of those completed internships at CEE after completing the training;
- 5 have been placed in jobs in energy efficiency (HVAC and insulation).
Goodwill/Easter Seals of Minnesota offered the Green Construction Program during the same time frame, and has had the following outcomes:
- 20 people completed training;
- 15 have secured employment to date, with 86% of those being within the construction and green careers fields.
