Clean energy job training offers hope to hundreds: ‘It's changed my life'

Chicago Tribune

6 hours ago

Jordan Foley ticks off what he didn't have when he started an intensive 13-week solar job training program on the West Side: money, a bed, clothes, food.
The fear that the program wouldn't be able to help him was intense, but Foley, 31, pressed on, learning the math, science and construction skills needed to wire and install rooftop solar panels.
He took tests, drew up blueprints and did daily physical training: pushups, jumping jacks and solar-panel carrying exercises.
And in April, his hard work paid off. He landed a job as a project administrator for a clean energy company.
'It's changed my life,' Foley said of the training program. 'It's definitely changed my life for the better.'
Foley is part of the first big wave of state residents to benefit from a long-awaited network of clean energy job training hubs established under Illinois' ambitious 2021 climate law, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. The inclusion of job training was a major demand of environmentalists and their allies, who were determined to see Black and Latino communities share in the benefits of the clean energy economy.
Eleven of 16 major training hubs statewide are now up and running, training hundreds of people.
'This moment is massive,' said Juliana Pino, interim co-executive director at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. 'It's really significant because before the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, communities had to fight very hard to even have (access to job training) be respected and understood.'
There were 541 students enrolled in the workforce hub training classes in mid-May, and 94 who had already graduated, according to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
The program is state-funded, so it's not directly affected by President Donald Trump's attacks on renewable energy, but if opportunities in the field diminish, that could hurt graduates' job prospects, advocates said.
Republicans in the U.S. Senate are currently working on a tax bill that would slash clean energy tax credits for businesses, homeowners and consumers. The House passed a similar measure last month.
Among those eligible for the free training, which comes with a stipend and support services, are energy workers who have lost their jobs, people who have been in the foster care system, people who live in communities disproportionately burdened by pollution, and those who live in communities with high crime and incarceration rates.
'You're bringing in hundreds — and thousands — of people into the middle class,' said A.J. Patton Sr., CEO and managing partner of 548 Enterprise, the parent group to the nonprofit 548 Foundation, which runs the workforce hub where Foley trained.
'This is not just a workforce program. This is a public safety program. If I can take somebody off the corner and hand them a solar panel, I've changed their life,' Patton said.
Under a sky hazy with Canadian wildfire smoke, 30 men and women in hard hats and neon construction vests pored over solar panels mounted on mock roofs they had built themselves.
The students were considering wiring configurations, screwing in cables and responding to questions from solar master trainer Sam Garrard.
In about a week, when the course at the 548 Foundation's West Side workforce hub at St. Agatha Catholic Church will conclude, the students will be able to install a solar array for a house, a car or a shop, Garrard said.
'Now they're just (taking) all their book knowledge and their hands-on knowledge that they've acquired and using it,' he said.
The atmosphere was intense but supportive, with trainees calling craft-instructor manager Keith Lightfoot 'coach' and responding instantly on the one occasion when he sternly uttered a single word — 'Language!' — in response to an expletive.
Among the challenges: Students have to do the math for solar arrays and learn the details of electrical wiring, according to graduate Cortez Heard, now a solar installer for a local clean energy company.
'It definitely did get challenging, but as a young man, you've got to understand it's going to be tough, and if you are ready for what you want to do, it's game on,' said Heard, 27, of Chicago.
Such job training opportunities are the product of a long, hard fight in Illinois — one that can be traced back to the state's previous climate law, the Future Energy Jobs Act of 2016.
The 2016 law was, in many ways ahead of its time, but it delivered some tough lessons to community organizers trying to make sure that Black and brown residents got their fair share of new jobs.
'We got our tails kicked by labor,' with many jobs and opportunities going to the relatively white construction trades, said Tony Pierce, co-pastor of Heaven's View Christian Fellowship church in Peoria and board president of Illinois People's Action, a multi-issue faith and community organization in Bloomington.
The next climate bill, environmentalists and organizers vowed, would be different.
They partnered with churches and social service organizations to hold community meetings across the state and hammer out a vision for what the clean energy economy should look like.
Again and again, organizers heard the same thing from communities, Pino said: 'We don't want (clean energy) to be just a replica of other new industries that show up in our neighborhoods, don't give us meaningful access, and we ultimately don't see the benefits.'
There was even a rallying cry: 'No climate, no equity, no deal.'
In the end, Gov. JB Pritzker, a strong supporter of climate action, stepped in to help get the bill across the finish line, and the environmentalist coalition won big. The new law not only set a goal of 100% clean energy by 2050 but invested heavily in job training for people and communities that might otherwise be left behind.
There are multiple workforce training programs under the Illinois climate law, including ones for people seeking union apprenticeships and for people in prison, but the workforce hubs program is the largest, and its progress has been closely watched.
More than $30 million in climate-law funding has already been awarded to the workforce hubs, according to the state.
Foley was basically homeless when a friend who works at the 548 Foundation told him about the solar job training program.
He received a stipend for attending, and within a few weeks his caseworker was able to find him a small room to rent and even a brand-new bed to sleep in.
'That was a blessing,' he said. 'From there, I took full advantage of the program.'
There were challenges: A relative died; not long after, another relative also died suddenly and prematurely.
And then there was his fear of simply finishing the program.
'I didn't understand what could come from it,' Foley said. 'I was more afraid of, 'What happens when you have to go back to being hungry? What happens when you put in all of this energy, all of these days, and there is no (one) that wants to hire you?' I was very terrified of that.'
Foley said he almost didn't take the final certification test, relenting only when Felicia Nixon-Gregory, the director of training and workforce development, sat down and talked with him.
And then, when he graduated, it was into a dark December for clean energy.
Winter, in general, isn't a good time to get hired for solar installer jobs in Illinois, and after President Donald Trump was elected in November, some clean energy employers took a wait-and-see approach to hiring.
The 548 Foundation workforce hub solar training program initially had a job placement rate of 85%, which then dropped to about 50% and was inching back to 80% by mid-May, according to Patton.
After he graduated, Foley found himself struggling to get paid what he was owed for short-term jobs.
Still, he continued to work on issues he cared about, starting a youth ministry and volunteering at Prairie Guardians, an environmental nonprofit in Bloomington.
And then, when he'd almost given up on a career in solar, he got a text from a case manager at his training program about a job at Atlanta's Dimension Energy with a $65,000 to $75,000 salary, a 10% sign-on bonus and unlimited PTO, or paid time off.
'I said, 'What is PTO?'' Foley recalled with a laugh. He had never heard of that.
The company made him an offer, flew him to Atlanta to meet the team and put him up in a fancy hotel.
He was worried that somehow the job, which is based in Chicago, wouldn't materialize, but then he got his company computer and corporate credit card.
People told him, 'Don't mess this up,' he said.
'I was like, 'You're crazy if you think I'm going to mess any of this up,'' Foley recalled.
There were high hopes for clean energy job training when the Illinois climate bill passed in 2021, and then there was frustration as year after year, the workforce hubs failed to materialize.
'This is one of the difficulties with having such nation-leading legislation,' said Francisco Lopez Zavala, an Illinois Environmental Council climate policy program associate.
'There was no other state in the U.S. to really model off in the efforts Illinois is leading in, with providing these trainings focused on the clean energy trade at such a scale, with the barrier reduction services that are offered,' he said.
Among the issues, some state agencies didn't initially have enough staff, Lopez Zavala said, and even now, in some places 'it's still a struggle that we're continuing to work (on).'
Pritzker's office did not respond to a written question about workforce hub delays but issued a statement saying in part, 'The idea for the CEJA workforce hubs originated with people from marginalized communities. The hubs are proof of the value of following environmental justice principles and ensuring impacted people have a seat at the table.'
The services available to reduce barriers for workforce hub students can include child care, bus and gas cards, and assistance with housing and food.
The idea is to give students the support they need to be productive and show up for class, said Crystal Overton, the 548 Foundation's director of student support services.
A recent day found her buying clothes for the students' job interviews.
'I'm just thinking all the time, how are we preparing them for success?' Overton said. 'It needs to be a holistic approach, and not just education. It needs to be like Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Are they taken care of? Because if not, they're not going to come in open and receptive to the lesson.'
The 11 regional workforce hubs that are already up and running include four in Chicago: the 548 Foundation hub with locations on the South and West sides, two Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership hubs on the South and West sides, and a Safer Foundation hub on the South Side.
Classes vary, with the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership focusing on job readiness training with an emphasis on soft skills as well as an introduction to career pathways and occupations in the clean energy industry.
'Ideally, someone can walk in, not knowing anything about the different career pathways, and then make a choice: OK, do I want to be a solar panel installer or do I want to work in HVAC?' said Abram Garcia, the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership's interim associate director of program guidelines and budgets.
Students can also find out which jobs they can get most quickly, he said, and for some that may be the deciding factor.
Walter Alston, 35, of Chicago was drawn to construction, but at the end of his 12-week program at a Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership hub, he spread his net wider, interviewing with the electric vehicle company Rivian.
He asked the questions he'd learned in the program — including ones about benefits and safety — and liked what he heard.
Rivian offered him a job as a service technician, maintaining and repairing cars. He'll do five weeks of training in California, Arizona, Texas or Florida, and then move to one of those states for a permanent position.
'I thanked RW just, like, a million times,' Alston said of Revolution Workshop, the nonprofit that ran his training program. 'I thanked them, I thanked them, I thanked them.'
As for Foley, he has in a sense come full circle. When he started his solar training program, talking to graduates gave him hope that this wasn't just another career dead end.
Now he's the one with a job and a story to tell.
During a recent video interview, Foley spoke from work, where he was on the road with some colleagues, visiting Illinois project sites.
'I'm loving it,' he said of his job. 'I'm very appreciative of where I'm at. They give me a lot of responsibility, so it's been a true life-altering experience.'