“We Don’t Have a (Solar) Labor Shortage”

“We don’t have a labor shortage. We have a shortage of jobs people want to do.”

That’s my favorite quote from the IREC Workforce Summit that took place last week in Washington D.C. The room was full of educators, policy organizations, solar advocates, and government representatives sharing their ideas and best practices for the future of the solar workforce.

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Every solar installer I talk to is expecting growth heading into 2023 and the two biggest challenges are: 1) supply chain issues and 2) trouble finding and retaining good employees. The IREC Summit and our event are both excuses to share ideas for growing your team from the inside out.

Electricians Will Save the World

“Innovating Training and Education to Expand Opportunity” was one of my favorite conference panels, especially learning more about Vaughan Woodruff’s work at ReVision Energy. ReVision has developed their own registered apprenticeship program to develop a pipeline of homegrown electricians and the results are powerful.

After a bunch of early success, the company is doubling down on the strategy. Check out this cool marketing video they made. I dare you to watch this and not get excited about the idea of electricians saving the world:

Vaughan is teaming up with Alyssa Soares from Namaste Solar and Keith Cronin from the Solar Executive MBA to teach other solar companies how to set up similar programs.

If you’d like to level-up the way you hire, support, and retain employees, sign up for this free webinar we’re running on November 9th: “Competing for Solar Talent in 2023”