Transcript:
When people buy used goods and vintage clothes from Goodwill, that money helps fund job training programs – including a new effort to prepare people for careers in clean energy.
Goodwill’s Clean Tech Accelerator launched in five states last year and is now expanding to more. It offers paid training in solar installation, electric vehicle charger maintenance, and more.
McDaniels: “Most people that come to us are coming to us because they’re looking for a new opportunity. They have either been stuck in one particular industry or job and they’re wanting to gain a new skill, and then they’re wanting to provide a better life for themselves and their family.”
Monique McDaniels is with Goodwill in South Carolina.
Her chapter is training people to install and service HVAC systems and electric heat pumps, which can heat and cool a home without oil or gas.
Participants get hands-on experience with the technology.
McDaniels: “We’ll have an actual lab where they’ll be working on the actual machines. … They’ll be able to touch it, feel it, break it apart.”
She says market research shows there are already well-paid jobs in her area for people with these skills.
McDaniels: “You can come in with very little knowledge or experience. You can gain these skills and really create the quality of life that you’re looking for yourselves and for your family.”
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media
