This project is a collaborative alignment of programs at secondary and postsecondary institutions with regional industry and community-based organizations. It is designed to provide new college and career pathways through the implementation of a clean energy associate degree and clean energy certificates in solar, wind, and geothermal energy. The project builds on the current Sustainability Studies associate degree options in the Liberal Arts and Sciences Program at the college. The new certificate programs are being developed in response to industry requests for trained technicians in wind and solar energy. Students who complete these certificate programs are being prepared to enter the clean energy job market as installers of wind or solar thermal systems as well as energy efficiency auditors. Those students who select the Sustainability Studies Clean Energy option graduate with an A.S. degree prepared to enter the industry as trained energy technicians. Regional industry partners for the proposed project include the FloDesign Wind Turbine Corporation, Beyond Green Construction, EnergÃa LLC, Alteris Renewables, NorthEast Solar, TerraClime Geothermal, Pioneer Valley PhotoVoltaics, and member businesses of the Western Massachusetts Green Consortium. Articulation with area technical high schools is being facilitated through the Career Vocational Technical Education Linkages (formerly Tech Prep) program coordinated by the college. Academic collaboration between the college and its higher education partners in western Massachusetts is designed to meet growing student interest in sustainability and clean energy courses and is responsive to a statewide need for technical personnel in occupations related to the installation and monitoring of clean energy systems.
Intellectual Merit: The Multidisciplinary Sustainability Studies options at the college have evolved from NSF/NEH/FIPSE supported curricular restructuring investments in Massachusetts community colleges. This project is allowing the college and its academic and industry partners to create new college and career pathways for the growing clean energy economy of the state. Within the framework of the Sustainability Studies curriculum, students enrolled in the new technical certificate programs (wind, solar, and geothermal) and the A.S. degree in Sustainable Energy are integrating technical skills with liberal arts instruction by selecting a concentration of general education coursework in environmental science, business, communications, or social equity.
Broader Impacts: Careful 2+2+2 articulation with secondary schools and four-year institutions is ensuring that increased numbers of better prepared students are in the technical education pipeline. In addition, the project is emphasizing the recruitment, retention, and graduation of underrepresented, low-income, and first generation college students who reflect the changing K-12, college, and workforce demographics of the region. Curricula, courses, and certificates developed through the project are being shared across the state through the MassGREEN initiative of the 15 Massachusetts community colleges that was established in 2009 to develop and deliver clean energy workforce training programs and through the educational programming of the Western Massachusetts Green Consortium.
