From an article by Nick Paulson in the Stevens Point Journal:
Mid-State Technical College will begin offering this fall certificate courses in renewable energy aimed at giving displaced workers additional skills to make them more marketable.
The programs are in five emerging renewable industries that not all journey workers have training in. Mid-State hasn’t begun officially accepting applications for the program, and only last week hired the case worker who will screen applicants and fill the classes. Though classes start in late August, likely at the Wisconsin Rapids campus, there should be plenty of demand for the 15 slots in each program.
“We’ve got a lot of dislocated workers, so I think a lot of people will look at this as a real opportunity,” said Ronald Zillmer, associate dean of Mid-State’s technical and industrial division. “The fastest impact on our economy is taking people who already have skills in those areas and tweaking them a little bit.”
The certificate programs, and the tuition for the first year’s students, is being paid for with a $428,000 Department of Labor grant. Mid-State recently began offering associate degrees in renewable energy programs, and the certificates are an extension of that focus.
Three of the certificates — photovoltaic systems, wind systems and solar thermal — require the student to be practicing journey workers who have completed their apprenticeship. The biorefinery certificate is for those with some previous industrial workplace experience. The energy efficiency certificate has no requirements.