Green energy’s future bright for tech college grads
Andrew Hellpap reports in the Wausau Daily Herald:
Technical colleges will play a key role in developing skilled workers to meet the state’s increasing demand for renewable energy, experts said Thursday.
At the two-day Renewable Energy Summit that ended Thursday at the Mid-State Technical College’s Wisconsin Rapids campus, members of the energy industry and academic community gathered to discuss the relationship between this growing sector and the education needed to continue its momentum.
Gov. Jim Doyle has pledged millions of dollars to help develop renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind and biomass.
Technical colleges will provide important training to accomplish that goal, but they also will need to work with four-year universities, said Al Javoroski, dean of the technical and industrial division at Mid-State.
“(The engineering and theoretical aspects), that’s not our business … so it’s key to have a relationship with the four-year schools,” he said.
While the technical colleges will provide the technicians who would maintain equipment like bio-diesel generators, which convert products such as cooking oil into fuel, universities will have a larger role in educating students and the community on the importance and availability of renewable energy sources, said Sue Budjac, vice president of academic affairs at Mid-State.
“It’s something we have to do,” she said.
Research by the Washington, D.C.-based Apollo Alliance, a group that investigates and advocates the potential of renewable energy, says there could be jobs for technical grads to snap up in renewable energy.
Bill Holland, a representative of Apollo, presented a report at the summit that said products already being created by some companies in the state could have some use, with minor modifications, in the renewable energy sector.
“We can expose students who may have not seen this type of thing,” Javoroski said.
