• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Education and Training for a Regional Green EconomyWorkforce: Finding New Synergies through Link andLeverage Strategies in the Great Lakes
Tim GaviganCenter for Education Innovation and Regional Economic DevelopmentBrookfield, WIEd MorrisonPurdue Center for Regional DevelopmentWest Lafayette, INThe University of AkronAkron, OH
Dimensions of a Green Economy Workforce
A green economy focuses on sustainability, resilience and regeneration. In anindustrial economy, our attention is driven toward the business firm — the corporation— and isolated individuals — “rational” consumers and investors. In a greeneconomy, we are drawn to connections: the relationships of ourselves and ourorganizations to our natural environment.
A green economy focuses our attention on open networks and a new concept ofregenerative innovation. It requires us to be aware of local ecosystems that aredynamically connected to the global economy. A green economy is alsomultidimensional and more expansive than a narrower industrial age perspective. Thisnew perspective connects our culture and human resources with the natural resourcesthat sustain us. From the perspective of a green economy, all of these resourcesdemand responsible stewardship.
Green jobs represents work in agricultural, manufacturing, research anddevelopment, and service activities that contribute substantially to preserving, promotingor restoring the natural systems on which we depend. For example, this definitionincludes jobs that help protect ecosystems and biodiversity; reduce energy, materialsand water consumption; and minimize all forms of waste and pollution.Moving toward a more sustainable, green economy will shift workforce development inat least four ways:1.New jobs will be created with the development of clean technologies;2.Some employment will be shifted from one technology base to another, such as ashift from fossil fuels to renewables;
March 2009
Page 1 of 7
 
3.Some jobs will be eliminated as markets shift away from old designs and technology,such as the shift away from materials that cannot easily be recycled;4.Some jobs will be transformed, as new skills are added. For example, constructionworkers will learn new techniques in efficient building design and construction.In the old industrial economy, jobs were easily classified by education level. White-collar, salaried jobs involved office work and higher levels of formal education. Blue-collar, wage employment relied on technical education with multiple entry points afterhigh school.Classifying green jobs is not so simple. Green jobs span a wide array of skill levels,educational attainment, and occupations. They share a deeper characteristic: anunderstanding of interconnection, a perspective of interdependent systems, a view ofthat our economy consists of networks embedded in other networks.
Across the world, green jobs represent an important new category of workforceopportunities. They promise quality employment, meaningful community servingopportunities, decent living wages and other benefits. This transition leaves us with aserious challenge: We cannot effectively prepare for the green economy with aworkforce development system designed in the Industrial Age.
Call to Action: Open Network Approaches to Education and Training:Open Source Workforce Development
Developing prosperity in a green economy requires new perspectives, newsystems, and a new approach to workforce development. The dynamics of the greeneconomy include the assumption that natural systems, capital, and human resourcesare connected. Prosperity within a region depends on how well we connect theseresources to innovation and productivity: the ability to produce more wealth with lessimpact on our natural systems. We need new regional systems of regenerativeinnovation. Our success in the green economy will depend on brainpower and how wellwe develop and deploy it within these new systems of regenerative innovation.
If America wants a strong workforce so that the benefits of green economicdevelopment we will need to design a new model of workforce delivery system. Ourcurrent workforce development structures, designed in an industrial age, must transitioninto delivery systems that are more resilient, flexible and adaptive.
We will need to move from free-standing hierarchical workforce organizations toopen networks in which resources can be quickly aligned, linked and leveraged. Weneed to design systems based on open networks. Only these networks will have theresilience we need to respond rapid change. Regions with workforce systems basedon open networks will be more competitive. They will spot opportunities faster, they willalign their resource faster, and they will be more agile in equipping their workforce withthe skills needed to compete. Collectively, we call these new systems “Open SourceWorkforce Development”.
March 2009
Page 2 of 7
 
Designing New Workforce Systems: The Value of Youthful Perspective
We are in the midst of a painful transition from old to new workforcedevelopment systems. This transformation requires great human creativity, tremendousingenuity, new insights, and the widespread civic participation. We will need new rulesof the education and workforce development game, as we move toward a moreinclusive, connected perspective of “balanced markets” and a green economy. This journey will take years, and, as we start, we should confess our ignorance. No one isquite sure how the details of work life in a green economy will be organized. We doknow, however, that our Industrial Age approach to workforce developmentorganizations is not up to the task. It is too fragmented, inflexible, and incoherent.
We also know that today
ʼ
s youth can provide us valuable insights into theeducation and workforce transitions we face as we move toward a green economy. Ouryouth have grown up in a connected world. While adults are immigrants to theexperience of digital connection, our youth are natives. Their experience and insightsblur Industrial Age boundaries. They are capable of sensing the emerging greeneconomy in ways that are different from adults whose formative experiences are rootedin a different time.
Regions that successfully engage youthful perspectives are more likely tomanage the transition to a green economy successfully by preparing the workforce oftomorrow. Youth have many of the skills we will need in designing new workforcesystems. They are connected. They are more experienced and comfortable in thehorizontal world of open networks than in the vertical world of command-and-controlorganization. They are skilled at searching within vast amounts of information andsensing meaningful patterns. They respond well to experiential learning and differentforms of information delivered digitally. They
ʼ
re comfortable with learning experiencesthat are delivered anytime anywhere. They define The value of work and work securityin different ways. They are skeptical, pragmatic and independent. They are orientedtoward action, and they are impatient with leaders who fail to recognize the importanceof the interconnectivity that defines the green economy.
Center for Education Innovation and Regional Economic Development
In Southeastern Wisconsin, the Center for Education Innovation and RegionalEconomic Development is uniquely positioned to enable and coordinate the transitionto a new workforce system designed for the green economy. It is nationally recognizedfor the development and implementation of education innovations that link talentdevelopment to a regional economy. These innovations connect the Center to otherinnovators at the local, regional, state, national and international levels. The Centeroperates a unique partnership program that enables it to engage national, local, andregional business, civic, and educational partners around focused initiatives. Throughthese networks, the Center is capable of delivering innovative ideas to a broadaudience.
March 2009
Page 3 of 7
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...