How to Find Employees with the Skills You Need (Pt. 2)

It’s no secret that one of the most challenging aspects of operating a solar or other clean energy business is sourcing and hiring new employees. Buzz about the ‘skills gap’ across the trades, STEM, and other careers points to a key reason – not enough people are being trained on the skills employers are looking for. Many employers, such as HeatSpring Teams, do their own training to help fill this gap. But what if there were a way to partner to have access to people with the skills you ALREADY need?

Meaningful and sustained relationships with training providers in your community are one way to make this happen. Any reputable organization hosting job-focused training is looking for employers to help them shape their training offering (curriculum) and hire their graduates. In fact, many are REQUIRED by their funders to work with employers just like you. 

How to find them? Certainly, high schools, vocational/technical schools, and community and other colleges are a great place to start, but there may be other organizations in your area that offer job training. Folks like “one-stops” or job centers helping new or transitioning workers with new skills, community based organizations providing basic skills training and other support and organizations such as Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, and AmeriCorps and other “service year” experiences who are training youth to serve their communities could all be great partners. Some are even equipping students with basic construction and other skills relevant to clean energy, such as safety training (OSHA, etc.)

As you scan for partners in the area, consider how you would like to engage. As a busy business owner or manager, time can be a limiting factor. Not everyone can serve on an advisory board, contribute to new training courses or teach a course (but it is great if you can!), but perhaps you or a team member could visit with a high school or college class, or participate in an area job fair. You could invite students to your location or a job site to interact with the technology, which is where the ‘wow’ factor comes in for many learners (here are some hands-on activity ideas from our very cool partners at Slipstream.) And finally, high-touch programs such as internships and apprenticeship programs can take a lot to set up, but will pay dividends in seamlessly connecting you to your future workforce, trained to your precise specifications. 

Also consider – are there trade associations or other business groups in your area with workforce development agendas that can help connect you to opportunities, so all the legwork is not up to you? We recently had outreach from one of the regional solar associations that is taking on workforce development projects to support their members, a trend we hope will grow. Some of you are connected to organizations serving the skilled trades, many of whom are adding clean energy to their offerings to learners. 

An informal survey of employers by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council in 2022 indicated that only 5% had partnered with training providers for recruitment purposes. You can stand out from the crowd by reaching out to those in the community training your future workforce. We’ll share a couple stories of successful employer-training provider partnerships next time. 

This is the second in a series of blogposts focused on workforce development and recruitment. Do you need help with outreach to training organizations? Want to see more of this? Let us know by taking our one-minute workforce questionnaire.