Daily Sound Article

Grant funds study of emerging green industry

By Eric Lindburg
Daily Sound

A $250,000 grant will allow Santa Barbara County and its neighbors to fund a study of emerging “green” industries to determine how regional workforce investment boards can help unemployed workers secure and keep jobs in those new markets.

Funded through the federal economic stimulus plan and a state assembly bill, the grant will be directed into research via the Santa Barbara Workforce Investment Board, which is partnering with similar groups in San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.

“The workforce investment board really wants to jump in on this and help out as much as we can — to find out what we can do to support the community,” said Victoria Sanchez, a public information specialist for the board. “That’s what we’re here for, to help out the people who have been laid off recently and want to be retrained.”

The grant will be used to commission a study by San Diego-based firm BW Research into green, clean and energy-efficient industries. Sanchez said the study will likely touch on topics such as wind and solar power, but its purpose is to determine emerging “clusters” in the overall green industry.

The information will help the workforce investment board determine how to help businesses in those industries grow, find qualified workers to fill job openings, and help unemployed workers gain the skills needed to take those jobs.

The local board is one of 10 recipients throughout the state, which will divide nearly $2.2 million in so-called Regional Industry Clusters of Opportunity grants.

“California’s shift to a low-carbon, clean-energy economy depends on a well-trained, knowledgeable, energized and stable workforce,” Herb K. Schultz, senior advisor to the governor and director of the California Recovery Task Force, said in a prepared statement. “It’s important that we invest in our dislocated and new workforce to help them become employed in leading clean energy industries, such as wind and solar manufacturing, clean-fueled vehicles and green, efficient buildings.”

Sanchez said a clearer picture of when the grants will be doled out should be provided by the state in the coming weeks, at which time the board will be able to develop a timeline for the study and subsequent workforce support efforts.

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