Macomb Community College expands green job training offerings

metromode, 5/14/2009

Green jobs may be the wave of the future, and Macomb County is getting its residents out there to ride it.

Macomb Community College is expanding its alternative energy and sustainability job training programs, thanks in part to hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants. The money will help the college train people for jobs in the wind, solar, biomass, geo-thermal, and hydrogen fuel cell industries. The renewable energy and energy efficiency industries are worth $1 trillion in the U.S. as of 2007.

The college is creating a Renewable Energy Certificate and continues to develop its Center for Alternative Fuels. About $800,000 in federal grants will go towards this green curriculum and purchasing equipment for the courses.

It is also working with Wayne State University on a plan for a Center for Advanced Automotive Technology. The center would serve as a regional hub for the development and teaching of green technologies associated with automotive applications.

"We are working closely with Wayne State to partner with some of the programs they are working on in terms of battery technology, both for stationary and mobile uses," says Bill Stark, director of Macomb's Center for Alternative Fuels.

Macomb Community College is also using a $135,000 federal grant to create a construction industry training program on weatherizing and retrofitting existing homes. The idea is to make these buildings more sustainable by making them more energy-efficient.

Source: Bill Stark, director of Macomb's Center for Alternative Fuels
Writer: Jon Zemke

Mt. Clemens