Green Jobs: A Resources Guide for Individuals with Disabilities

Everyone is talking about "green jobs". But finding out what a green job really is, what training and education is required, and how to access these jobs can be a difficult task, especially for indivduals who have a disability. This guide is designed to direct people with disabilities and their advocates to the information and resources they need to begin an effective job search for green occupations

Clean Power Players: Landing a Job in Clean Energy

A new, first-of-its-kind guidebook by Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) offers practical, how-to advice for young people seeking careers in clean energy

Preparing the Workforce for a "Green Jobs" Economy

Identifies the types of jobs and skills that will be in demand in clean energy economy and the factors that are driving the new energy economy and the growth of its workforce. Also considers strategies for building competitive, flexible workforce systems that can respond to emerging employer needs and highlights best practices occurring around the nation

A Green Building Ordinance for Buffalo

All new building projects in the City of Buffalo totaling 5,000 square feet or more that are city-owned, city-financed or city/state subsidized should be LEED-Silver certified. The City of Buffalo should mitigate its contribution to global warming and reduce reliance on energy and natural resources while improving the quality of life or its residents, employees, and visitors. Multiple federal/state funding incentives and significant tax credits exist for going green. Green building practices are not nebulous, politically correct goals with little visible return. As many cities have shown, green buildings are valid economic engines that draw people into cities to live and work

Greater Washington Works: IT and Health Careers with Promise

The Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative, an initiative of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, has partnered with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to develop new a research report, Greater Washington Works: IT and Health Careers with Promise, released today. The report focuses on how our region can address the skills gap and lift more of our neighbors out of poverty through careers in IT and Healthcare.With over 70% of net new jobs requiring post-secondary education and training, the Washington regional economy continues to be highly knowledge-based. Local employers, however, face challenges in finding skilled workers. Nearly 800,000 individuals in our region have no education past high school, highlighting a skills gap that has the potential to undermine our region's global economic competitiveness.Further, while it is encouraging that our regional unemployment rate has improved to pre-Great Recession levels, many of our neighbors are still struggling to make ends meet. Our region can count 100,000 additional residents living below the Federal poverty level since 2009. African American or Latino workers in the region are three times more likely to earn an income below the poverty level. Addressing our region's race, ethnicity, and gender-based income inequality is a critical challenge for our region to tackle if we want to ensure that all in our region have a fair shot for prosperity

Illinois' Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs

Countering assumptions that a college education will be the only ticket to a stable economic future in Illinois, nearly one million openings in middle-skill jobs are projected for the state by 2014, according to a new study by the Skills2Compete-Illinois campaign. While the openings signal new opportunities for Illinois' workforce, the report cites the growing concern that there will not be an adequate number of skilled Illinois workers to fill these positions. The report also finds that two-thirds of the people who will be in Illinois' workforce in the year 2020 were already working adults in 2005 -- long past the traditional high school to college pipeline. The Skills2Compete-Illinois campaign calls for a new vision: every working Illinoisan should have access to at least two years of education or training past high school

Aligning Community Colleges to Their Local Labor Markets

Examines ways to better align community college curricula with employer needs, including analyzing online job ads to gather data on occupation and skill demands; examples of use of labor market information; and the potential and limitations of such data

Identifying Gaps and Setting Priorities for Employment and Training Research

The report summarizes recent workforce and employment related research, to identify current gaps in employment and training research and makes recommendations for future research processes and priorities that could better inform policy makers, practitioners, job seekers and employers. The report reviews workforce and related research funded by several federal agencies, including the US Departments of Labor, Education, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development, the National Science Foundation and other federal entities, as well as research undertaken by regional, state and local workforce agencies and philanthrophic organizations