Directors from different areas of Madison collaborated to inform University of Wisconsin students about opportunities involving ‘green’ jobs Tuesday night.
Three directors met for the first forum in the series to talk about educating and training employees for greens jobs.
The panel included Kathryne Auerback, director of the Sustainability Leadership Certificate at Edgewood College, Barbara Anderegg, director of Education for Renewable Energy Technology at Madison Area Technical College and Crystal Fey, program manager at UW-Extension for the Sustainable Management Bachelors Degree Program.
Each director participated in the forum representing their respective programs.
Auerback said going green is a rapidly spreading trend in cities, organizations and campuses all over the nation.
“People with green jobs are changing agents,” Auerback said. “They are the ones who want to make a difference and lead in making a change.”
As none of these directors gave a clear definition of what exactly a ‘green job’ is, Fey was enthusiastic about the idea that every job was a green job, and no job exists that is not a green job.
All of the directors agreed upon the fact that actually not all jobs are indeed green jobs, but at least have the potential to be green jobs.
The women represent distinct programs for acquiring a certificate or degree in sustainability or renewable resources ranging from Saturday sessions and online courses to a 21-course education.
However, these routes are not solely for students.
“At first, our target audience was our faculty,” Anderegg said, “It soon became evident that we had more students who were interested in the program. Our program consists of people with a lot of previous experience to students who are just starting out.”
Auerback said the same thing happened at Edgewood, with the focus of the program targeting mid-career professionals at its start, but transforming to educate not only first-year college students, but adults nearing retirement.
Since all the programs are relatively new, the directors could not say a lot about placement success.
“We don’t have any graduates yet, but we have 30 businesses that serve on our advisory board,” Anderegg said. “We’re hoping they’ll help us get going on job placement.”
Students in attendance at the forum were excited about the series.
“Going green is the thing to do,” Clarissa Dunes, a UW senior said. “I thought the panel tonight was inspiring. I wish more people would express concern with the environment and efforts to go green.”
The panel was the first in a series of four Community Environmental Forums co-sponsored by Edgewood College, UW’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and UW’s department of civil and environmental engineering, Director of the Nelson Institute Steve Pomplun said.
The forums will be held every other Tuesday from 5:30-7:00 p.m. in the Mechanical Engineering building.
Pomplun said the sponsors decided to host the forums in an effort to prepare students for the change in the workforce toward green jobs.
“We chose this particular issue because there was a prominent demand from the students for it to be addressed,” Pomplun said. “We want the students to be as prepared as possible.”
