Regional Collaboration Receives National Recognition
“Green Pathways = Green Paydays” is a collaboration between Riverside 
Workforce Development, College of the Desert, and the regional chapter of GRID Alternatives that has proven very effective in addressing workforce needs of the region’s renewable energy industry.
Employment in the Green Economy
As Deputy Sector Navigator (DSN) for Advanced Transportation and Renewable Energy (ATRE), Larry McLaughlin has maintained a partnership that began several years ago with the author of this program, Regional Director Wendy Frederick, to develop renewable energy job training. With the support of a talented outreach and placement staff, the partnership has focused on getting those who are unemployed back to work in the region’s growing green economy.
Workforce training conducted under the Green Pathways = Green Paydays program has included solar energy, residential energy rating, and advanced lighting controls. Each has yielded important industry credentials that help participants compete more effectively in the regional job market.
The program has also partnered with employers to conduct job fairs and recruitment events. In November 2014, more than 300 residents of Blythe, California attended a job fair for the large-scale McCoy solar power project. There were 125 job offers made. This program has helped usher in a new age of renewable energy for California by working with contractors and labor unions to place skilled workers in some of the world’s largest solar projects being constructed in Riverside County.
Semifinalist in National Competition
The Green Pathways = Green Paydays program was recently recognized as a 2015 semifinalist in the Innovation in American Government Awards program, a national competition recognizing excellence and creativity in the public sector. The award includes the use of the Innovation in American Government Semifinalist Seal on the Riverside Economic Development, Workforce Development website and marketing materials. A profile of the program is also featured on the Government Innovators Network through the Harvard/Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.
For more information about Green Pathways = Green Paydays, contact Larry McLaughlin at lmclaughlin@collegeofthedesert.edu.
