Springfield, MA – Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) announced nearly $8.7 million in grant awards to invest in planning, capacity, training and equipment for climate-critical jobs in the clean energy and climatetech sector. MassCEC CEO, Dr. Emily Reichert, announced the newest slate of awards as part of the Western Mass Clean Energy Workforce Summit, an event focused on providing partnership-building opportunities and aligning regional stakeholders to support the expanding needs of the clean energy ecosystem in Western Massachusetts.
“The heroes of the clean energy transition will be the electricians, HVAC installers, and builders,” said Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Rebecca Tepper. “With these funds, we’ll be fostering another class of green construction experts, upgrading training equipment, and bringing fresh talent into these lucrative fields. Training up our workforce is critical to reaching our climate goals.”
The awards will fund 18 lead organizations to work with 35 partners across Massachusetts to expand career awareness, internship opportunities, new entrant and upskilling training, access to modern training equipment and infrastructure, and support to Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses (MWBEs) in climate-critical fields. These awardees join over 110 other active MassCEC workforce grantees and partners working to scale opportunities and access to climate-critical occupations.
The career pathway and training grants announced are designed to train an additional 420 people over the next three years and, in that same period, ensure that at least 3,300 training participants have access to modern equipment and resources to prepare them for the job demands of today and tomorrow.
All the workforce development programs announced include clear plans for increasing inclusivity. Thirteen of the awards, totaling nearly $3.8 million of the funding announced, were supported by MassCEC’s Workforce Equity programming which provides annual funding to expand workforce development and support services to individuals and businesses from environmental justice, low-income and other historically underrepresented communities. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and FY24 State Budget funding provided the respective resources for the Equipment and Infrastructure and Climate-Critical training awards.
The awardees:
Equity Workforce Training Grants ($3,255,493)
Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology (FC Tech), Boston – FC Tech will provide more affordable HVAC training opportunities for low-income individuals from environmental justice and gateway communities, including returning citizens. FC Tech will provide scholarship funding to take FC Tech’s HVAC&R program.
Greenfield Community College, Greenfield – Greenfield Community College’s Office of Workforce Development will build capacity to launch the Youth Climate Corps programming to provide career awareness and explore the growing array of clean energy jobs.
MassHire Central Region Workforce Board, Worcester – MassHire will work with the Worcester Housing Authority to recruit residents and provide those individuals with skills desired by employers in climate-critical occupations such as construction, hazardous waste removal and building maintenance.
Northeast Home Energy Rating System Alliance (NEHERS), Northampton – NEHERS will develop an in‐house RFI and Modeler curriculum to deliver live trainings, revise and streamline the HERS Rater Training and Reference Manual, design pull‐out sections for RFIs and Modelers, and prepare the manual for future translation into other languages.
Tremco CPG, Boston – The Achieve Green (AG) program by Tremco CPG Inc. will create avenues for young people to gain the skills required to enter multiple green construction fields. The AG program provides two pathways for high school students in their senior year leading into continued educational pathways and employment: the IUPAT pre-apprenticeship pathway for glazers/weatherization techs and a hybrid college and on-the-job training program through Roxbury Community College and NEHERS training program.
Upper Cape Cod Technical School, Adult & Continuing Education, Bourne – Upper Cape Cod Technical School will recruit 30 opportunity youth, under and unemployed adults, and members of federally recognized and state-acknowledged tribes to start their journeys towards becoming electricians by providing the participants with Electrical Code and Theory Level 1 training and support entering apprenticeships.
WeReach, East Boston – WeReach will establish a ten-week construction management training program that primarily focuses on increasing the number of individuals of color in leadership positions in the construction industry.
Climate-Critical Workforce Training Grants ($2,481,779)
National Grid, Waltham – National Grid, in partnership with Community Work Services and Training Resources of America, will scale and sustain the National Grid Energy Infrastructure Academy. This immersive upskilling program trains Greater Worcester and Greater Boston residents from historically underrepresented and marginalized communities in the skills needed for clean energy roles.
Northeast Home Energy Rating System Alliance (NEHERS), Northampton – NEHERS will expand the HERS Rater Training mentorship program to include career advancement for incumbent workers, small business development, and a HERS Rater train-the-trainer program to grow a diverse and skilled pool of trainers available to meet the growing demand for HERS-related training.
South Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC), Framingham – SMOC’s Green Jobs Academy will implement a 12-month training program to engage regional student cohorts to cover a range of skills and credentials. The program will employ the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Installer Badges Toolkit, a flexible, customizable approach to training skilled workers for the home energy-retrofit industry. It will provide training modules to meet all Installer Badge requirements.
Upper Cape Cod Technical School, Adult & Continuing Education, Bourne – Upper Cape Cod Technical School will begin training climate-critical electricians by recruiting 60 Massachusetts residents, including those from underrepresented populations, and providing them with Electrical Code and Theory Level 1 training and support entering apprenticeships.
Training Equipment and Infrastructure Grants ($2,206,715)
Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology (FC Tech), Boston – FC Tech will purchase two portable tabletop heat pump trainers to enhance the current HVAC&R curriculum and to provide additional training in heat pumps.
Greater Lawrence Technical School (GLTS), Lawrence – GLTS will increase training opportunities for students by upgrading their HVAC lab with high-efficiency electrified equipment. GLTS will also expand training opportunities in the Electrical Department with the addition of rooftop and ground-mounted solar photovoltaic systems.
Julius Education, Boston – Julius Education will develop the Massachusetts Green Labor Market Intelligence Hub, a scalable infrastructure for AI-driven insights with real-time labor market intelligence for MassCEC priority occupations, including regional job demand, priority skills, and in-demand education and certification requirements.
Local 103 I.B.E.W. Educational Corp., Dorchester – The Greater Boston Joint Apprentice Training Center (JATC), a collaboration between the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 103 and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) of Greater Boston, will refurbish the JATC’s wind turbine and integrate the turbine into IBEW’s apprenticeship and clean energy pre-apprenticeship programs.
South Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC), Framingham – SMOC’s Green Jobs Academy will purchase essential training equipment, including infrared cameras, blower door systems, and insulation blowing machines better to simulate hands-on field training exercises with the latest technology.
Upper Cape Cod Technical School, Adult & Continuing Education, Bourne – Upper Cape Cod Technical School will purchase equipment, including EV chargers, a prefabricated building, and electrical panels and wiring to enhance the hands-on learning environment and experience of electrical students and other students entering climate-critical occupations.
Equity Workforce Planning and Capacity Grants ($524,696)
Planning
Hack.Diversity, Boston – Hack.Diversity will adapt its nine-month Fellowship program model where they have opportunities to convert paid internships into permanent offers, to find ways to incorporate clean energy sector opportunities, technical upskilling, and onboarding and will also identify if additional programs need to be built out to support the unique needs of the clean energy sector.
Local 103 I.B.E.W. Educational Corp., Dorchester – IBEW will expand existing resources, programs, and partnerships into the clean energy sector to support NECA-IBEW-associated MWBE union electrical contractors as they transition into clean energy sectors.
Passive House Massachusetts, Boston – Passive House Massachusetts will create an outreach plan to recruit MWBEs currently in the building industry, including HVAC contractors and carpenters, and train them in the Passive House construction model.
Capacity
Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC), Jamaica Plain – JPNDC will expand its Small Contractor Success Initiative into the clean energy space by providing training and certification for MWBE contractors in the construction sector and support those MWBEs with technical assistance to overcome lending discrimination and linguistic barriers.
Sustainable Business Network (SBN), Cambridge – SBN will develop its statewide solar training program, the SBN Solar Workforce Accelerator, by developing partnerships with community-based organizations, training organizations and employers to scale up training operations statewide.
Training Resources of America (TRA), Worcester – TRA, in partnership with National Grid, will build the capacity necessary to scale the National Grid Energy Infrastructure Academy pilot, which targets Worcester residents from underrepresented communities and trains them in net-zero grid infrastructure roles.
Expanded Support for the Clean Energy Internship Program Grant ($224,000)
Browning the Green Space (BGS), Boston – BGS will expand access to the Clean Energy Internship program by recruiting new employer partners, advancing best practices for hiring and supporting interns from diverse backgrounds, and mentoring 60 students from historically underrepresented communities throughout their summer 2024 internship program.
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“These workforce training programs are an important component of our efforts to position Massachusetts as a global hub of climatetech and clean energy,” said Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. “We recently filed our Mass Leads Act, which will dedicate $1 billion to the climatetech industry. As we foster this industry, we need to be training up our workforce to serve in these new jobs. We’re excited to see these grants in action.”
“Climate change presents us with an opportunity to right past wrongs, and MassCEC’s equitable workforce development program represents that,” said Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. “The clean energy and climatetech industries are creating thousands of good-paying, fulfilling jobs. It’s critical that the people most deeply impacted by environmental injustice and climate change get access these dynamic and lucrative new fields.”
“MassCEC is grateful to all our partners, grantees, and stakeholders who are working each day to build an equitable clean energy workforce that provides good jobs in every region across Massachusetts,” said Reichert. “These awards are a testament to what can be achieved when we work together toward a more resilient and sustainable future, and they underscore our collective commitment to prepare this fast-growing workforce with training opportunities and access to modern equipment.”
MassCEC is a state economic development agency dedicated to accelerating the growth of the clean energy sector across the Commonwealth to spur job creation, deliver statewide environmental benefits and to secure long-term economic growth for the people of Massachusetts.
