Inaugural Green Collar Job Corps Class Graduates

35 graduates of all ages and colors came on stage to pick up their green hard hats and diplomas last Monday from Laney Community College's 7-month Green Job Corps program in Oakland, CA. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums was on hand to congratulate the graduates and to remind them of the historic significance of their achievement: "You are the new astronauts, going where others have not gone before: fighting poverty and pollution."

The Green Job Corps was an idea hatched back in 2007 by Van Jones and his colleagues at the Ella Baker Center. I had spoken with Ian Kim, the EBC Green Collar Jobs Program Manager and Raquel Pinderhughes before this idea received $250k in seed funding from the Oakland Public Works Dept. Read those 2007 interviews here:
http://sereporter.com/?q=node/33 and http://www.sereporter.com/?q=node/28

Mayor Dellums made a point of telling the graduates that he had just returned from a recent trip to his old stomping grounds in Washington, DC, where many promises were made to help provide jobs for this inaugural class. Only 4 of them have landed jobs or internships so far.

The Green Job Corps is the product of a unique partnership between Laney Community College, the Cypress Mandela Construction Training Program, and Growth Sector, a workforce intermediary that connects employers, government and community agencies.

Gary Gerber, CEO of Sunlight and Power spoke of this as a watershed moment in the field of renewable energy--for the first time his business has a source of trainees who are ready to help his business grow. And Art Shanks, CEO of Cypress Mandela, spoke of the how the new attitude of the trainees is helping to change the dynamics in both their lives and their communities--"drop your guns and pull up your pants!"

Peter Crabtree, Director of Career and Voc Ed at Laney, has already started planning curriculum for a new one-year Building Performance and Energy Efficiency Program. BPEEP, co-sponsored by San Francisco-based Bechtel Engineering, is "an accelerated interdisciplinary one-year course of study designed with industry to provide job skills training that allows participants to qualify for immediate employment in weatherization and home energy assessment, with a solid foundation to apply for entry-level positions in energy efficiency firms."

Will the jobs be there? And if the funding comes through via ARRA, DOL's green job grants and the new ACES bill, will social enterprises have a role in job creation?