Economy

Green Job Training In Imperial County

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published November 22, 2010 at 3:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

A new partnership in the Imperial Valley is geared toward training high school graduates in the growing green economy. The program is one way to increase living-wage jobs in an area with the country's highest unemployment rate.

The partnership is between the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union (IBEW) and Imperial High School. The sheet metal workers local is also involved.

The IBEW Local 569's Micah Mitrosky said a union apprenticeship introduces students to the skills required in the developing green economy.

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"Part of our apprenticeship includes training for solar, wind, geothermal," said Mitrosky

She said the skills used in the construction trades translate nicely to renewable energy projects.

The same skills that are needed to build, for example, a gas-fired powered plant, are the same skills that you need for a geothermal plant," said Mitrosky. "All our apprentices that are going through our program in Imperial County will be ready to go to work in all of those green technologies sectors."

Mitrosky said the five-year apprenticeship is a way for high school graduates to get paid for on-the-job training - and earn college credits, too.

Imperial County had California's highest unemployment rate in October. Although the rate was slightly down from the 30.4 percent in September, in October 29.3 percent of the workforce was jobless.

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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