Funding Opportunity: Workforce Development for the Energy Transition

Strengthening Minority Opportunity Youth Participation for a Future-Ready Energy Literate and Resilient Workforce

Project Director: Berneece Herbert
Organization: Jackson State University
Project Location: Jackson, Mississippi
Award: $499,996
Project Summary: This project proposes the development of an Energy Literacy & Resilience (ELR) Workforce Training Initiative to strengthen the participation of youths in a future-ready workforce to accelerate the journey to net-zero in energy industries in the Mississippi. As ambitious climate targets are pursued for emissions reductions and sustainability, jobs are at the core of the massive shift that is underway in the global economy and are a critical part of the conversation about achieving this green transition. The push towards net-zero emissions requires a diverse and skilled workforce capable of supporting and implementing clean energy technologies. LinkedIn’s 2022 Green Economy report shows that the US is facing a green skills gap in sectors related to the energy transition including infrastructure, direct air capture, and electromobility. As climate actions create new jobs, they also provide opportunities to address racial and social inequities in the labor market. The Gulf region has experienced compounding disasters with numerous billion-dollar extreme weather disasters and widespread energy infrastructure failures occurring against a backdrop of persistent social and economic inequities. The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events, amplified by climate change, will likely continue to exacerbate these impacts on the communities’ resilience. The overarching goal is to use a network of experienced partners to implement a future-ready energy workforce development program to assist minority opportunity youth, 16 to 24 years old, work toward rewarding careers, equipping them with employment and life skills required to succeed in the high-growth energy industry.

Florida Clean Energy Pathways Program

Project Director: Jennifer Szaro
Organization: Association of Energy Services Professionals
Project Location: Central Florida (Hillsborough, Orange, Pinellas, Polk, Seminole counties)
Award: $494,557
Project Summary: The Florida Clean Energy Pathways Program is designed to address the evolving needs of Florida’s clean energy sector through a comprehensive approach integrating AI-powered labor market analysis with dynamic educational programming. By harnessing real time labor market data and industry insights, our project identifies critical roles and necessary qualifications within Florida’s clean energy market, tailoring educational experiences that align with employer demands.

Our initiative forms a robust partnership across academia, industry, and nonprofit partners, ensuring a holistic approach to workforce development. Our consortium unites key stakeholders across the clean energy landscape, featuring the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP), a leading national clean energy trade association; FSEC, the energy research division at the University of Central Florida; Julius Education, a firm specializing in data-driven talent solutions; and Froliq, leaders in AR/VR clean energy workforce technologies. This collaboration ensures a program grounded in real-world needs and enhanced by cutting-edge education technology, providing core energy industry fundamentals curriculum and immersive AR/VR content.

Targeting individuals aged 16 to 25, our program offers career assessments and orientation training that bridges the gap between education and employment, guiding participants towards apprenticeships, certifications, or direct-to-employment pathways. We emphasize inclusivity, engaging underrepresented groups to diversify the energy workforce. Participants receive milestone stipends and benefit from personalized support such as coaching and mentorship, further bolstered by subsidized support services including transportation.

This program is designed to empower a new generation of diverse energy professionals, fully equipped to meet and excel in the demands of tomorrow's energy landscape.

Training for Marine Survey Careers to Support Coastal Energy and Infrastructure Development

Project Director: William Sager
Organization: University of Houston
Project Location: Houston, Texas
Award: $491,580
Project Summary: Coastal regions are critical to the energy transition, in part because of anticipated offshore wind development. This region is important also to the hydrocarbon and other industries, through shipping and related infrastructure. Offshore wind begins with marine survey: mapping the seafloor, subsurface, and environment to allow proper development and resource management. Anticipated wind lease sales are driving a need by marine survey companies for new employees. The number is difficult to figure, but we think it is dozens per year. Employers are not looking for students with advanced degrees; instead they are satisfied with students having a bachelor’s degree or less, but looking for students with experience in fieldwork and data processing. This situation is ideal for diverse students who seek a good-paying technical job that does not require many years of coursework. This project is a collaboration between industry, with The Hydrographic Society of America (THSOA), and academe, with the University of Houston. We propose an intense course, lasting ~11 days, in which students learn background information and methods, go on a boat to collect data, and finish with an industry short course on popular sonar processing software using the data that they just collected. We think that a short, intense course a with focus on hands-on data collection and processing will have high impact on students trained. The course will offer college credit for degree-seekers and a certificate for the student resume. Afterwards, THSOA will be the venue for student networking with industry and finding jobs.

WERiSE Training for Home Energy Renovation in Underserved Communities

Project Director: Stephen Guesman
Organization: The People's Justice Council
Project Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Award: $245,344
Project Summary: WERiSE (Weatherize Every Residence in the South East) is training home energy renovators doing air sealing and other low-cost energy efficiency improvements in energy-burdened communities. WERiSE is a project of The Peoples Justice Council, a member of America’s first Justice40 Accelerator cohort.

The Gulf South experiences a high prevalence of energy burden and energy poverty. Simple, low-cost air sealing alone can reduce energy bills by 10-30%, and this work can be performed by laypeople. Our goal is to establish self-supporting home energy renovation crews in underserved communities in Alabama and throughout the Gulf South. Locally based crews can reduce the energy burden of folks who have little access or affordability for renovation services of the conventional marketplace.

WERiSE uses a train-the-trainer approach to take home energy renovation “viral” while keeping dollars and economic power in local communities where they belong. WERiSE enlists local houses of faith and community development organizations to identify, train and support renovators and crew leaders who can carry on the work of home energy renovations in their communities after we—and the grant money—are gone.

The WERiSE model is inherently sustainable in that it empowers individuals within communities to build skill sets to address these issues in residences and businesses for generations to come. More than just giving hungry people some fish (weatherizing homes), WERiSE is teaching folk how to fish (home energy renovation training).

EMERGE: Educational Microgrid for Enhancing Renewable Growth and Education

Project Director: James Fletcher
Organization: University of North Florida
Project Location: Jacksonville, Florida
Award: $445,151
Project Summary: The proposed project, entitled “Educational Microgrid for Enhancing Renewable Growth and Education” (EMERGE), aims to develop critical technical skills and provides widely recognized credentials to participants from the Jacksonville area at the University of North Florida (UNF). Project partners include Miller Electric (a leader in IT, Facilities, and Energy) and JEA, the local utility provider. EMERGE utilizes the unique educational Microgrid established at the UNF, which integrates 60+ kW of solar panels with 5 kg/day of hydrogen production via electrolyzers and its use in high-performance fuel cells (33 kW) to produce clean and renewable energy. Within EMERGE, the industrial partners will identify 16 early career electricians for comprehensive hands-on training focused on renewable energy and systems integration. The project team (consisting of faculty members from UNF and the University of Florida, two postdoctoral researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students) will collaborate with industrial partners to create course credentials, training modules, and a "Microgrid Technology Certification", preparing early career electricians for the evolving energy sector. The EMERGE project will also be customized to include course modules and hands-on training specifically designed for high school students in Northeast Florida. To support high school student's participation, job opportunities and mentorship will be provided through summer internships with industrial partners, enhancing access to career pathways in the energy sector. EMERGE will act as a pilot project for a sustainable pipeline of skilled workforce to meet the future demands of the clean energy sector in Florida and beyond.

Virtual Reality Enhanced Curriculum for a Clean Energy Workforce in the Gulf States

Project Director: Marty Riesberg
Organization: electrical training ALLIANCE
Project Location: Florida, Louisiana, Texas
Award: $499,856
Project Summary: This project, spearheaded by the electrical training ALLIANCE, seeks to enhance electrical apprenticeship training through building and deploying hands-on Virtual Reality (VR) curriculum. Collaborating with six Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committees (JATCs) across Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, the project targets future and existing apprentices (ages 16-25) in the Gulf States to increase the skilled workforce for the clean energy transition. The project entails developing, testing, and implementing a VR module on clean energy system safety, such as solar, wind, and geothermal technologies. 1,307 participating apprentices across six JATC partner locations will receive access to VR headsets and engage in testing and piloting of the module. By leveraging VR technology as a recruitment and retention tool, the project aims to diversify and expand the pool of skilled electrical workers in the Gulf region. VR modules significantly accelerate learning, reduce time spent in theoretical settings, and provide cost-effective simulation of complex scenarios like wind turbine maintenance. This efficiency greatly benefits training centers, allowing them to invest in larger classes of apprentices.Partnerships across sectors, including in education, industry, and local nonprofits, further enrich the project’s impact, ensuring a robust pipeline of prospective apprentices and guaranteed industry jobs for graduates. VR facilitates hands-on practice, instant feedback, and peer-to-peer mentoring, preparing apprentices for diverse challenges in the clean energy sector. Ultimately, the project addresses the urgent demand for skilled electrical workers to shepherd the clean energy transition in the Gulf States, fostering workforce readiness, economic growth, and industry competitiveness.

Project Elevate-Urban Youth Empowerment Program

Project Director: Rommell Williams
Organization: Houston Area Urban League
Project Location: Houston, Texas
Award: $492,398
Project Summary: This project will provide economic empowerment through our workforce development initiative for our Center for Energy Workforce Development and expand Project Elevate. This grant funding will help expand our existing Urban Youth Empowerment Program (UYEP) focused on skilled technical careers utilizing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) knowledge, but do not require a bachelor’s degree that will provides Opportunity Youth (16-24 years of age) with the essential skills needed to successfully find a career in high-demand/high-growth and emerging energy sectors. The primary focus is to connect participants in preparatory training and/or pre-apprentices from communities of color to registered apprenticeship programs in the Clean Energy Industry. The Houston Area Urban League (HAUL) will identify and provide preparatory training skill-building services, including Registered Apprenticeships (RAPS) and occupational training for in-demand industries that lead to industry-recognized credentials and link the Individualized Development Plan (IDP) to RAPs and/or employment successfully. HAUL will place diverse candidates into careers in Clean Energy work that include solar, wind, and hydrogen electric sectors. Our academic partner, University of provides a comprehensive environment for technology training and development in software development, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, and cybersecurity. HAUL will facilitate STEM Outreach and Community Programs: Workshops and summer camps youth, focusing on coding, robotics, and other technology-related topics.

TRACE: Texas Research Alliance for Clean Energy

Project Director: James ‘Chris’ Thomas
Organization: Texas A&M University
Project Location: College Station, Texas
Award: $471,874
Project Summary: TRACE: Texas Research Alliance for Clean Energy is a pilot academia/industry collaborative effort aimed at developing undergraduate engineering students in Texas specifically for the clean energy workforce. The pilot program includes five Texas-based universities, eight faculty members, seven Texas-based companies, eight industry partners, and eight undergraduate engineering students. Academic and industry partners have been strategically selected based on their expertise and ongoing work on clean energy technologies, including hydrogen and ammonia production, storage, transportation, combustion, and utilization; wave/wind energy harvesting; and carbon capture technologies. Undergraduate students will conduct research under their faculty mentor’s guidance at their host institution during the spring and fall semesters. The students complete a summer internship between the semesters with their host industry partner on a clean energy topic related to their research. The student participants are also required to attend seminars on clean energy topics, complete an industry-recognized credentialing program, and conduct STEM outreach activities. The main goal of this effort is to develop a sustainable, scalable, and collaborative multi-entity program that facilitates the development and training of undergraduate engineering students in the Gulf region. This program will enable student participants to successfully obtain careers in the regional clean energy workforce. In addition, the program will foster collaboration between participants and address lacking workforce skills and needs.

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Funding Opportunity: Workforce Development for the Energy Transition

Awarded 2024

Resources

Awarded Projects

Awarded 2023

Resources

Awarded Projects

My Academies

Funding Opportunity: Workforce Development for the Energy Transition

Awarded 2024

Resources

Awarded Projects

Awarded 2023

Resources

Awarded Projects