UWM helps Midwest community colleges provide training for green careers » Urban Milwaukee

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is spearheading an initiative to help more workers in the Upper Midwest acquire skills for “green” jobs that support manufacturing.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will help nine community colleges in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois establish industrial training centers – places where workers can develop energy assessment skills. Those skills can then be used to help manufacturers reduce their energy use and reduce their carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy has selected the University of Milwaukee to lead one of its clean energy and manufacturing workforce consortiums aimed at helping companies become more competitive while fighting climate change. The university received a $5.7 million federal grant to support the effort, the college announced this week.

Ryo Amanoa mechanical engineering professor at UW-Milwaukee, is leading the initiative. He said the initiative builds on work done over the past 30 years at the university's Industrial Assessment Center.

The UW-Milwaukee center conducts free energy assessments for private businesses, helping them save on energy costs and reduce waste and carbon emissions. Amano said these assessments benefit businesses in a variety of ways.

“They need to become more efficient and more economical so that they can improve the manufacturing process itself, hire more employees and increase their sales,” he said.

The new training centers will teach students and workers how to use technologies such as heat pumps, hydrogen for power generation and renewable energy. Amano said it will likely take three to five years for the new centers in the Midwest to be fully established.

Amano also said that partnerships with technical colleges and community colleges are important because not everyone wants a four-year degree, so more people have access to the skills they need.

“With such certificates and experience, they (students) can get a job more easily,” he said. “They can improve their quality of life. They don't necessarily have to have a bachelor's degree, but they can also bypass it to gain important skills.”

One of the two-year colleges cooperating with UW-Milwaukee is Moraine Park Technical College, with locations in Fond du Lac, Beaver Dam and West Bend.

Doug HammVice President of Teaching and Learning at Moraine Park Technical College, said his school was a natural fit for the program because of its already strong emphasis on advanced manufacturing.

He said it will also be beneficial for Moraine Park students to learn more about energy efficiency and clean energy technologies.

“We're excited to give our students a greater opportunity to be exposed to that mindset and realize that their role in industry can be more than what they set out to be,” he said. “When we expose them to programs like this, they're more aware of what it takes to run a business and what it takes to be competitive on the world stage.”

Hamm added that participation in the program will enable Moraine Park, thanks to federal funding, to offer free energy assessment services to small and medium-sized manufacturers in the region.

“The grant actually funds the work required and all the costs associated with it,” he said. “They get a service that benefits them and doesn't dictate how they run their business or what they have to do. But it gives them ideas and ways to become more efficient and use their resources much more effectively.”

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UW-Milwaukee leads efforts to train workers for green jobs that support manufacturing was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.