Tapping green-collar job opportunities in Colorado
Wind energy will be a big part of Colorado's "New Energy Economy."
The next wave of economic opportunity in Colorado will be tied to businesses that capitalize on renewable energy and energy efficient products. In October 2008, Gov. Bill Ritter announced the first recipients of the “New Energy Communities Initiative”, 14 projects that are expected to stimulate economic growth, enhance sustainability and lead to more livable communities all across Colorado.
This initiative is one of several programs and partnerships from the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) focused on the New Energy Economy. In addition to these government initiatives, private companies are investing in developing energy-efficient products and services. Vestas Wind made news last year when it chose northern Colorado as the location for its first U.S. production facility.
Economists are predicting that these initiatives and companies will create thousands of new “green-collar” jobs for the state. Identifying and securing these jobs is the current challenge for job seekers in Colorado.
The most obvious types of green jobs are geared toward environmental engineers, scientists, and other professionals with energy-related credentials. Searching job listings posted by the NREL and similar organizations is one way to identify jobs in these fields. Besides the obvious job categories, people will also be needed to build, sell, and deliver the new energy technologies. Finding these jobs is a greater challenge.
Sorting through the glut of job postings found on search sites such as Monster and Career Builder will yield a handful of green jobs in Colorado. Digging deeper to find green job postings is a little easier once you find sites such as GreenJobs.com. As is the case with any job search, job boards should be used as just one resource to identify jobs. Doing your own research on companies to identify their initiatives, attending lectures and workshops to improve industry knowledge, and networking to mine your existing contacts or to create new contacts are all activities that might generate the best leads for the new jobs.
I will outline resources for finding green jobs in the next series of articles.
