Shift to a higher gear clean energy new training guarantees aligned with jobs

Welcome you at the confusing and somewhat chaotic world of credentialing! In the past month result a marathon undertaking, the Interstate Council for renewable energy (IREC) two national milestones in our commitment to the credentialing in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Our goal - standardized quality training with employer demand - training results that result in marketable professional skills matched.

Together, these services offer new guarantees for consumers of energy, industry, students, and Government. We released IRECs new standard for training programs that offer certificates in the renewable energy and energy efficiency space, and we started the accreditation program, together with our partner of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to demonstrate compliance with these requirements.

After 24 months of working with a vocal and balanced Committee of experts; ask the public for three rounds of comments on the standard; Development of a rating system with ANSI through holes up on several elements required; keep a pilot study; and clarifying definitions - we now use a standard and an accreditation process exists. We were damn sure that this epic effort had the highest priority value in building a working with training for safety and quality. We not afraid, for one minute. We enjoyed the lively discussions. We added the tedious details in attack. And we pushed the envelope further. Here is the reason.

Growth in the area see clean energy we sometimes not so quickly, like us, but in any case growth would like. Grid tied photovoltaic systems continue their rise, as U.S. wind capacity does. Expected doubling is spending on energy efficiency programs in the next 12 years. All of this leads to more employment. We have a lot of training around tuned for industry needed skills and some not-so-good training leading country - a good education to unclear learning outcomes. We still facing the misrepresentation certificates as a mark of professional certification. There is a lack of consistency and a variety of confusion.

IREC 14732 training standard offers a clear way through this confusion by laying down the rules for the program management, educational processes (instructional design and evaluation) and technical content (skills and knowledge taught), with the result, leading to a market value of certificate.

What is the market value? Spent hours discussing this. Basically, we want to see someone who has gone through the training learned marketable and job-related skills. If you go through training, and provide you with a "Go to certificate" has to mean something. A certificate of attendance cut not when we are talking about job readiness and market value. IREC standard 14732 and the ANSI-IREC accreditation program is a step up from IRECs ISPQ 01022 standard and regulation. This new standard and assessment that process that offer IREC ISPQ program does and much more. Both credentials are a hard-earned seal of approval by a third party, but to further raised the bar with this next chapter in IRECs commitment to quality assurance.

For more information about IRECs, visit unique credentialing program that accredited educational institutions and certified instructor in the renewable energy and energy efficiency fields, www.irecusa.org.

Written by the annual workforce development Institute Conference / American Association of community colleges

View the original article here