Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs released its Green Jobs Report on Thursday, which explores training and education programs within the University System of Ohio (USO) that prepare students for green jobs.
The Voinovich School’s report, titled “Green Jobs and the Ohio Economy – Part 4: Education and Training Programs,” focuses on university system programs relating to six sectors of Ohio’s green economy: renewable energy, energy efficiency, manufacturing, advanced energy, bioscience, green building and agriculture/biomass.
To prepare the report, Voinovich School researchers conducted a review of exemplary green jobs-related training programs nationally and identified best practices among these programs. Researchers then conducted a survey of educators in order to assess implementation of these best practices among green jobs-related programs in the USO.
The survey found that each of the best practices is being implemented among a majority of the 269 responding programs.
In addition to the survey results, the report provides over 30 case studies of green jobs-related programs nationally and in Ohio.
The report is one of four reports about green jobs prepared on behalf of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) and the Ohio Board of Regents (OBR) through a research project supported by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment Training Administration. The Voinovich School’s report, along with the other three reports in the “Green Jobs and the Ohio Economy” series, is available at: http://ohiolmi.com/research/research.htm.
According to project manager Zachary Holl, these reports represent the state of Ohio’s most ambitious analysis to date of Ohio’s green economy and will help to more clearly define “green” professions.
“Among the general population, the definition of a ‘green job’ is unclear to a lot of folks,” he said. “Hopefully, this report will help those that are interested to get a better understanding of what is a green job. From an educational and training perspective, it’s practical because it helps people to relate education and training programs to the types of jobs that those programs can prepare for in the green economy.”
As a complement to the reports, the Voinovich School developed a database that the state of Ohio is now using to provide online information on more than 1,300 green jobs-related programs at four-year universities, two-year colleges and adult career centers within the USO.
The Career Exploration tool at http://ohiolmi.com/asp/Career/JobTool.asp, established by the ODJFS, provides information for individuals who are looking for jobs or considering career changes. The Ohio Green Pathways website at http://www.ohiogreenpathways.org/, established by the OBR, helps users understand what green jobs-related programs are available within the university system and what types of green occupations there are.
Senior Project Manager Sara Boyd said employers, education professionals, students seeking education, and job seekers will all be able to utilize the sites to find “information on employment and educational opportunities in the green economy as well as the best practices among programs.”
More information on the “Green Jobs and the Ohio Economy” reports is available online at http://ohiolmi.com/research/research.htm.