Thursday, April 17, 2008

Washoe County vows to be a 'Green Region'

Washoe County vows to be a 'Green Region' By SUSAN VOYLES • svoyles@rgj.com • April 17, 2008
http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080417/NEWS04/804170364/1002
"Washoe County officials say they will try to make Northern Nevada a world leader in producing renewable energies and develop the needed technology."

Fair enough....
However I see two problems here.
1. There are very limited incentives for ANY alt-energy here in NV (I would do a lot of solar IF I could get some low interest loans to pay for it (I hate to cite CA in anything... but check out what they are doing). Since the banks can't seem to give money away... why not a govt backed low interest (or no interest) loan to be paid back with money saved from lowered utility bills?
2. And... (you knew this was coming...) Wow Jobs..... (especially high-skill / high-paying jobs)...
"Renewable energy technology is among six industries targeted by the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada to provide high-paying jobs for the area"...
And where are we going to find people qualified for these jobs? There are very few classes in this area which have anything to do with industrial electrical (hmmmm... I remember a $400.000 federal grant a couple of years ago.. Oh yeah... TMCC fired both instructors who were going to do classes in that field.) ..

Time to wake up... someone better wise up and actually start providing industrial training. There are programs that work in many states (and these states are getting the industrial jobs to prove it).

If we are to have high-paying jobs... that is going to take high-skills. I know the people in this area have the intelligence..... what they don't have is the training opportunities.

posted by cl @ 9:12 AM 0 comments

update

First... Technial Education is alive & well in the US. I have been working three weeks out of four around the county providing this training, just returning from two weeks at Boeing and a week up at the Navy sub base. It is really sad that this training is not being offered in this area. It would seem that the local "educational establishment" would be looking for local talent, but it appears they still have their head in the sand! As I've noted before..... as we "oldsters" retire & die off.. who is going to be training those new to the "dirty fingernail" arts?

Note: Since training is not available in this area, there are some very good on-line programs (more on this later) and... a plug for my company here).. here's a $200 off seminar offer:
http://view.exacttarget.com/?j=fe6315727764027b7311&m=ff011570706107&ls=fde511747c6d057b7011757c&l=fe8a15767360007a7c&s=fe5b16757c61007f7010&ju=fe31157470660c7e771071

posted by cl @ 9:04 AM 0 comments