by Brittney Donovan and Grace Maruska

In honor of the 10th anniversary of National Apprenticeship Week, we wanted to illustrate how apprenticeships can help meet the needs of the labor market related to the clean-energy transition in New Jersey. Commonly referred to as green jobs, occupations associated with the clean-energy transition are largely concentrated in environmental infrastructure and energy efficiency and require extensive, hands-on training and technical skills.[1] Recent studies by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey show the role that apprenticeships can play in providing workers with the necessary knowledge, skills, and expertise to help stakeholders carry out the clean-energy transition in New Jersey.[2]Apprenticeships are a preferable means of education and training, as compared to other training arrangements, because they are paid and offer an on-ramp to career pathways, particularly for disadvantaged groups often shut out of high-quality, good-paying employment opportunities.

Released in spring 2024, New Jersey’s Energy-Efficiency Workforce Needs, Infrastructure, and Equity Assessment includes strategic recommendations around expanding federally registered apprenticeships in the energy-efficiency sector in New Jersey. We emphasize that employers work closely with education and training providers to ensure that apprentices learn the right knowledge, develop the right skills, and earn the right credentials to meet industry needs. Collaboration is deeply important given the changing nature of the energy-efficiency sector, particularly technologies around decarbonization (e.g., electric heat pumps). We also urge education and training providers to recruit potential students from disadvantaged groups (e.g., women, people of color, low-income communities, formerly incarcerated individuals, people with disabilities, etc.) to address energy equity.[3] These apprenticeship opportunities provide on-ramps to career pathways related to the clean-energy transition in New Jersey. 

Researchers at the Heldrich Center recently completed a workforce planning analysis for New Jersey’s Priority Climate Action Plan that recommends creating apprenticeships centered on career readiness and opportunities for youth across six priority areas: buildings, electric generation, halogenated gases, food waste, natural and working lands, and transportation. We propose using the New Jersey Apprenticeship Network — with its existing partnerships — to create new apprenticeships geared toward the priority areas. Examples include training electrician apprentices to install chargers for electric vehicles or solar photovoltaic technologies (i.e., solar panels); heating, ventilation, and air conditioning technician apprentices to use the latest heat-pump technologies; and farming apprentices to work the land. Such opportunities could be encouraged among youth in secondary schools to facilitate clear education-to-career pipelines in New Jersey.

These recent reports demonstrate how stakeholders involved with the clean-energy transition can use apprenticeships to provide the future workforce with the necessary knowledge, skills, and expertise. With targeted recruitment among disadvantaged groups, these on-ramp opportunities can help ensure equitable access to high-quality, good-paying green jobs as New Jersey transitions to clean energy.     
 

[1] https://www.nj.gov/governor/climateaction/documents/CGE%20Roadmap.pdf

[2] Stakeholders include employers; education and training providers; community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, and other nonprofits; and unions.

[3] Energy equity is the fair distribution of benefits from transitioning to clean energy, especially employment opportunities, to disadvantaged groups and historically underserved communities.