Shining a Light on Solar Workforce Development

2023-08-31

This episode is part of our Skilled Labor Series hosted by MCJ partner, Yin Lu. This series is focused on amplifying the voices of folks from the skilled labor workforce, including electricians, farmers, ranchers, HVAC installers, and others who are on the front lines of rewiring our infrastructure.Alyssa Thomas oversees the workforce development program at SunPower, a residential solar company, that services all 50 states in the US and has been around since the mid-1980s.The transition to clean energy is expected to...

Alyssa Thomas oversees the workforce development program at SunPower, a residential solar company, that services all 50 states in the US and has been around since the mid-1980s.

The transition to clean energy is expected to generate 10 million net new jobs globally by the year 2030. Most of the anticipated job gains will likely be in the power generation, automotive, and electrical efficiency sectors. How we develop the talent to meet the job demands falls under the category of workforce development, which we've talked about before on the show. Today, we'll dive deep into what it means for the solar industry.

In this episode, Yin and Alyssa discuss what workforce development encompasses for a private-sector solar company, and why more private companies are focusing on it now as a part of their business model. We also talk about the three key levers that the US should focus on to address labor shortages in the clean energy sector, bringing back career technical education curriculum into every American high school, building a stronger social services net to provide support for people transitioning into the trades, and investing more into building and maintaining apprenticeship programs.

In this episode, we cover:

[1:43] Alyssa's background and role at SunPower
[7:23] How she landed in the solar industry
[9:25] Differences between Alyssa's work in the public vs. private sector
[13:46] Non-obvious things pushing us to think about workforce development
[20:01] Where new talent in the trades might come from
[23:06] Successful partnerships for moving folks into solar
[28:59] Internal and external pathways for hiring
[33:10] SunPower's work on policy
[37:19] The role of community colleges in workforce development
[39:11] Addressing diversity and inclusion
[44:49] Programmatic barriers and key levers to getting more people in the trades

Get connected:
Alyssa Thomas LinkedIn
Yin X / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective

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Episode recorded on July 7, 2023 (Published on Aug 31, 2023)

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