Initiatives Team Up for Green Technology Training

California faces increasing electrical energy costs and a growing desire to address issues pertaining to global climate change.  One key response has been to increase the demand for the implementation of renewable energy technology.  This summer the Advanced Transportation Technology and Energy (ATTE) and Workplace Learning Resource Center (WpLRC) initiatives partnered on developing a contextualized basic skills curriculum as a supplement to an industry-based wind curriculum developed by the ATTE Initiative in partnership with Airstream Inc., a wind technology company.

This ATTE Wind Generation Technician Training project was two-fold. First, it included professional development in wind technician education along with technical training to faculty from California’s Community Colleges in an intensive 40-hour presentation of wind technology and the necessary education and training needed to meet the needs of today’s wind industry. Secondly, to be certain that students have the necessary basic skills to benefit from the wind technology technician training, ATTE partnered with the WpLRC to identify the basic math and language skills required for this technology. As a result, the Centers developed comprehensive basic skills supplements to the curriculum which, was specifically contextualized to the wind technology industry.

The El Camino and Oxnard WpLRCs identified two basic skills instructors, Dale Ueda and Margaret de la M, to develop the contextualized basic skills supplements to the Heavy Wind Generation Technician Training.  The two WpLRC basic skills faculty attended the first two days of the five-day faculty in-service on the Heavy Wind Generation curriculum. They identified the necessary basic math and English language skills needed to support the wind technician training then developed the supplemental curriculum to assist trainees who need additional support to master the training skills. 

The supplementary basic skills curriculum for the Heavy Wind Generation Technician Training was presented to 25 faculty members attending the wind technician training on August 11, 2008 at Cerro Coso College. The curriculum demonstrates to community college faculty from around the state how a basic skills curriculum can be contextualized to a specific industry or job function.

For more information contact Phil Sutton, Director El Camino College WpLRC, 310-973-3172 psutton@elcamino.edu; Lucia Haro, Director, Oxnard College WpLRC, 805-986-5874 lharo@vcccd.edu, or Peter Davis, ATTE Initiative Director, 619-473-0090, outrchpd@me.com.

Wind turbine photo courtesy of Chris Giles Photo.

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