Environment sustainability

Cross-Sector Skills Partnership Launches Rapid Reskilling for Green Transition Roles

Denver, Colo. – November 22, 2025 – A first-of-its-kind Cross-Sector Skills Partnership announced today the immediate rollout of a Rapid Reskilling Program designed to move 25,000 U.S. workers into green-transition jobs by mid-2027. The coalition—anchored by Dominion Energy, ball-bearing manufacturer SKF USA, the Colorado Community College System and ed-tech firm SkillRise—will deliver 120–180-hour micro-credentials in solar installation, energy-efficient HVAC retrofitting and battery-storage maintenance, credentials that map to 42 occupational titles the Department of Energy lists as “severely understaffed.”

The launch arrives as the renewable-energy sector faces a 68 percent year-over-year jump in job vacancies, according to a June 2025 snapshot by the International Renewable Energy Agency. An OECD analysis released last month warns that “the green transition brings both opportunities and challenges” for vocational systems, noting that 42 percent of young workers in energy-intensive trades will need new competences before 2030 to avoid displacement

. The Partnership’s curriculum, benchmarked against that OECD framework, will be piloted at eight community colleges and inside four SKF plants across Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, with hybrid instruction available to rural learners via Dominion’s existing fiber network.

“Employers can’t meet federal or state climate targets without people who can install heat pumps, calibrate inverters and maintain 600-foot wind turbines,” said partnership chair and Dominion Energy Chief Talent Officer Maria Alvarez. “This program compresses what traditionally took two semesters into 12-week progressions that keep paychecks flowing while workers upskill.” Alvarez noted that Dominion alone must hire 7,500 additional green-tech workers to fulfill its 2030 net-zero pledge; SKF’s U.S. president, Kent Viitanen, added that bearing-recycling lines and re-manufacturing cells tied to carbon-reduction goals require “electro-mechanical technicians we simply can’t find.”

Participants—priority given to displaced fossil-fuel employees, veterans and workers in communities losing automotive stamping or coal-generation facilities—receive stackable certificates that articulate into 18-hour college credit. Funding blends Inflation-Reduction-Act training grants, state rapid-recovery dollars and employer matching: workers earn full pay during plant-based residencies and up to $1,000 completion bonuses. Early cohorts in Denver will start January 6, 2026; enrollment opens December 1 at greenskillspartnership.org.

Market data underscore the urgency. Clean-energy employment grew 12.5 percent in 2024—triple the national average—but hiring managers report an average 47-day lag to fill technician roles, costing an estimated $2.4 billion in delayed solar and wind projects last year.

Meanwhile, 61 percent of exiting defense-industry welders and 38 percent of former coal miners possess baseline mechanical aptitude that aligns with green-equipment servicing, according to Colorado Department of Labor simulations used to design course objectives.

Initial projections indicate the program will inject at least $410 million in new payroll into the Mountain West over five years and cut carbon emissions 1.1 million metric tons annually once graduates are deployed. A third-party evaluation by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory will track wage gains, retention and greenhouse-growth reductions, with interim findings promised in Q4 2026.

Quote:

“America doesn’t have a worker shortage—it has a skills-speed shortage,” said SkillRise CEO Daniel Park. “By synchronizing real-time labor-market analytics with employer-backed apprenticeships, we’re proving that reskilling can move at the speed of the energy transition itself.”

About the Cross-Sector Skills Partnership

Formed in early 2025, the Partnership unites 14 energy producers, 9 manufacturers, 22 community colleges and 5 workforce-tech vendors to solve sector-wide talent bottlenecks slowing decarbonization. Its governance charter requires that 60 percent of board seats be held by employers who commit to hire or promote program graduates within six months of completion.