New green technician certificate
Students to learn green building and manufacturing practices

By Tracy Birch · The Mainstream
Published February 8, 2011

Keeping up with the trend to go green, UCC is now offering free courses toward a Green Technician Certificate to qualifying students through a grant which will run until June 2012. The new certificate will teach employees how to run businesses in an environmentally friendly manner.

Pete Bober, director of the SBDC & Workforce Training Center, is optimistic about the new certificate. “It will generate a much stronger awareness for the need for us to be concerned about green-related issues. The program is designed to meet the needs of rural employers who need technicians with a variety of different skills.”

The Green Technician Certificate is custom designed to fit unique jobs that require several skills from one employee, such as the new field of mechatronics. The term combines the word mechanics and electronics and reflects the joining of these two industries.

Bober describes the mechatronics worker like that of a building maintenance manager, the go-to person who has the knowledge to fix almost everything in the building. From drywall repairs to plumbing, he has the systems perspective of how things work together.

The new program teaches students to take a deeper look at where raw materials come from and how to distribute and dispose of them correctly. Students will learn how to utilize energy more efficiently to have the lowest impact on the environment.

 Eight other rural community colleges are also offering the Green Tech Certificate, thanks to a grant provided through the Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development and the Oregon Consortium from the U.S. Department of Labor.

 Some building practices such as HVACR will be covered in the classes. Students will learn preventative maintenance and some attributes and ideas that relate to lean manufacturing. “First and foremost the graduates will be technicians with an appreciation and value for green approaches and practices,” stated Bober.

Employees possessing a Green Technician Certificate will have green skills that will make them more employable as companies are searching for ways to reduce environmental waste, a task increasingly mandated by local and federal governments. Reducing environmental waste can save companies time and money.

 Students completing the one-year green tech certificate will have problem solving skills, an understanding of green technologies and sustainability, plus an overview perspective of different occupations in green technology, according to Bober. Successful students will also have a unique set of entry-level mechanical, electrical and heating-cooling system skills. Certificate holders will be able to apply the skills obtained in the program on the job.

Roseburg Forest Productsis an example of a local company working to reduce their footprint. Previously, they burned up most of their waste wood products. In their search for ways to have less of an impact on the environment, they have opened up a Pellet Operation. RFP now takes the scrap pieces of wood and bark and turns them into pellets that consumers use in their pellet burning stoves. This minimizes waste and maximizes recycling. “The pellet plant is only one small example of many actions they have taken that are green,” Bober explains.

The certificate requires 45 credits with classes like Intro to Green Tech, Green Industrial Safety, Building Systems and Local Applications for Alternative Energy. The credits are transferable between all of the participating colleges, and some or all of the classes are transferable to participating colleges as well. The classes offered for the program are online and free to qualifying students. Umpqua Training and Employment has information on financial assistance for the Green Tech Certificate students.

 UCC is serving as the lead on this program, after months of work by Bober and a team of many people from UCC and around the state who collaborated with Umpqua Training and Employment,The Oregon Consortium and The Oregon Workforce Alliance.

UCC has nineteen students enrolled in the program currently and expects to have 30 participants over the life of the grant. Bober hopes that at some point in time UCC can develop the certificate into a two year degree.

Students interested in the program can contact Stephe Reid at Umpqua Training and Employment 541-677-1623 for more information or the Workforce Training Center 541-440-7824.