People, Projects, and Programs,News from the field

摘要

As war veterans return to the United States and search for jobs, green energy companies are all too happy to put them to work. According to a report by the Associated Press, the renewable energy industry is growing fast—solar and wind energy have grown more than tenfold in the last decade—and military veterans often are a good fit for green jobs. There are a lot of candidates out there: Some 850,000 veterans, including 240,000 from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are unemployed. The jobless rateamong veterans generally runs about 2 percent higher than the civilian rate. And, the White House expects an additional 1 million service members to return to civilian life by 2016, AP reports. In response, groups such as Denver-based nonprofit VeteransGreen Jobs, and Troops to Energy Jobs, a pilot program run by five of the nations largest energy providers, are offering training and credentials to military veterans, as well as college credit for their military training and experience. "Green sector jobs, such as manufacturing or maintenance of wind turbines or solar arrays, require skills similar to those that service members learn in the military," says Bill Scott of Bradley-Morris Inc., the largest military-focused recruiting firm in the country. "Veterans generally get technical training that is lacking in the civilian workforce."