Green jobs lag behind training, some say
DETROIT, Feb 2, 2010 -- UPI
Training for green jobs in Michigan may be getting ahead of the job
market, where environmentally friendly jobs are still scarce, various
observers say.
"A training program doesn't create a job," said Cindy Buckley, executive
director of training at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, The Detroit
News reported Tuesday.
Economist Don Grimes, a researcher at the University of Michigan's
Institute on Labor, Employment and the Economy, said, "this idea that we
have this ready trained work force that can produce this stuff and is
unique, that's just wrong."
Some workers, like Avison McKelvey, recently trained as a wind power
technician, said the job market in green jobs may force a move from
Michigan.
"I may have to leave and, with the economy in Michigan, that remains to
be seen," McKelvey said.
Others are hoping the millions of dollars in state and federal funding
for training for green jobs will pay off.
The sector now accounts for 3 percent of Michigan's workforce, the News
said.
"The green jobs areas is still small. But cars were small in Detroit in
1910. By 1920, there was a mass migration of people to work in car
factories," said Andy Levin, Michigan's deputy director for the Michigan
Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
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