plus 2, Hancock career day brightens job market - msnbc.com

Hancock career day brightens job market - msnbc.com
Clean energy funds fill cost-saving, jobs strategy [New Haven Register, Conn.] - TMCnet
Entrepreneur profile: College job became career for Morales - El Paso Times

Hancock career day brightens job market - msnbc.com

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 02:40 AM PDT

The job market is a dark, scary place right now, but Career Exploration Day at Hancock College Friday helped current and future students brighten their horizons.

The event featured 75 exhibitors set up in the grassy Commons at Hancock's Santa Maria campus. They ranged from small businesses to international corporations. Hancock Coordinator of Student Services, Stephanie Robb, said around 1,700 students including high schoolers from Nipomo to Santa Ynez, were able to explore both career options and educational opportunities from both Hancock and Cal Poly.

"It helped me learn a lot about how the job market is today," said Sasha Garcia, who is taking personal development courses at Hancock. "It shows me that even though (academic) degrees are important, skills are just as important."

The 19-year-old Santa Maria Valley native was among hundreds of students exploring the possibilities for their future and Garcia was using the event to do a little homework, as well. She was researching the kind of education and training needed for various professions for her personal and career exploration class.

Hancock College offers 182 degree and certificate programs, many of which were represented at the event. Not all professions require associate, bachelor's or master's degrees.

JoAnne Plummer, recreation manager with the Lompoc Parks and Recreation Department, is the perfect example of how Hancock College and the career exploration event can change lives.

Plummer was a Hancock

student when she got a job with the Santa Maria Department of Recreation and Parks as a summer lifeguard. She completed her degree and turned that part-time summer job into a career and worked for the city for

13 years. She eventually moved to Lompoc where she now manages a department that runs city recreation.

Plummer said she wants to offer those kinds of opportunities to current students.

"It's important to let the community and the kids know what we have to offer because we are the largest employer of youth in Lompoc," she said.

The department hires from 60 to 80 part-time employees each summer, most of them high school or Hancock students, Plummer said. Recreation, being outdoors, working with seniors, children and pets are just some of the things she said she enjoys about her job.

Recreation management is one of the newest programs at Hancock and it will offer its first associate's degrees next semester. Representatives of the program were recruiting new college and high school students at the event.

"With this degree you can change the world, you can make a lot of money, or you can do both," said instructor Paul LeSage.

Garcia said she is using her career exploration class and Friday's event at the college to find her perfect profession. She is interested in studying visual journalism - a field that combines the professions of photojournalism, reporting, writing and graphic design. It blends words and images, both still and moving, to form messages for multimedia presentations.

"I'm getting a sense of the pros and cons of careers, what types of education and training is needed and salary ranges," she said.

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Clean energy funds fill cost-saving, jobs strategy [New Haven Register, Conn.] - TMCnet

Posted: 09 Oct 2010 03:59 AM PDT

(New Haven Register (CT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 09--Gene Bartholomew had 30 years invested in his career as an HVAC technician and had advanced to a rare factory representative position when a layoff displaced him.

"It's a real eye-opener. It's a real wake-up call," the Chester resident said. "The stress of losing your job -- I don't even know how to describe it. It's worse than a low punch in the gut." The combination of income from his wife's accounting job, slashing discretionary spending and his unemployment benefits kept a roof over their heads. Bartholomew graduated from a Sustainable Building Adviser certification program at Gateway Community College in North Haven in June, just as his benefits were running out.

Gateway offered the course at no cost to the unemployed, using federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds targeted for creating so-called "green" jobs and supporting training programs in fields related to smarter energy use and development of alternative fuel sources.

Bartholomew said he did not want to embark on an entirely new field. The college's program gave him a chance to pick up credentials that would make him marketable as the heating, ventilation and air conditioning industry adopts "green" or environmentally friendly practices and equipment.

"Right now, I think people are confused about green jobs and what the credentials mean," he said of emerging trends in everything from construction to water and utility use. "It can be applied to both residential and commercial buildings. We have to get our energy costs down." Thanks to some good old-fashioned networking and the skills upgrades, Bartholomew was hired by Commercial Air Services in North Branford. "I found a better job. It's been worth it," he said.

The Obama administration and congressional supporters dedicated $32 billion nationally through the U.S. Department of Energy on energy efficiency, environmental cleanups, modernizing the electric grid, carbon capture and storage, transportation, science and innovation and renewable energy.

Connecticut was awarded $297.3 million for projects and clean energy tax programs. Matthew Fritz, special assistant to Gov. M. Jodi Rell and state recovery act coordinator, said approximately $24.5 million was allocated to an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program that is aiding 26 municipalities with projects such as improving efficiency at town hall buildings, renewable energy sources and replacing equipment like heating units and lighting on athletic fields.

The Department of Social Services administers $64.3 million that will be spent on weatherization efforts for clients of regional agencies -- including and comparable to Community Action Agency of New Haven Inc. -- that serve low-income residents. Without ARRA funds, weatherization funds fluctuate between $1.5 million and $2 million annually. "It's a huge increase in that program," Fritz said.

The state's goal is to weatherize 7,500 homes.

Fritz said block grants went to communities as small as Torrington and as large as Wallingford. The state also allocated stimulus funds to cities and towns that did receive money directly.

He lauded Gateway for offering environmental programming on brownfields and other training areas, years before the federal dollars were available.

According to the National Governors Association, every state and territory over the past two years has advanced in energy efficiency and developing clean energy sources.

"Most states are developing clean energy not only as an environmental strategy, but also as an economic development strategy, to reduce state energy costs and even create jobs in some instances," John Thomasian, director of NGA's Center for Best Practices, said in a statement.

The center found that since 2008, 49 states adopted or updated policies relating to clean electricity and took action to expand energy efficiency measures. Thirty-nine states made investments in green approaches to economic development, moves NGA attributed largely to economic recovery strategies.

A watchdog website known as ProPublica reports the Department of Energy is one of five recipient agencies that had released less than one-quarter of their stimulus funds as of Sept. 17.

Vice President Joseph Biden on Oct. 1 submitted a report to President Barack Obama on the status of Recovery Act spending as of Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.

While the overall job creation goal of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act was to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010, the 25-page document turned in by Biden says energy-related spending will extend beyond Dec. 31.

For example, $5 billion targeted for weatherization assistance will not be spent until the first quarter of 2012.

About $35 billion is estimated to be spent in 2011 on activities related to infrastructure programs, including broadband access, smart grid, battery awards, highway and water quality projects.

A significant portion of $18 billion in unobligated money is dedicated to high-speed rail and clean energy projects.

October marks the observance of National Energy Awareness Month. In his weekly radio address Oct. 2, Obama said, "There is perhaps no industry with more potential to create jobs now -- and growth in the coming years -- than clean energy." The president said the nation for decades has talked about the importance of ending dependence on foreign oil and pursuing new kinds of energy, such as wind and solar power. He chided special interests and their "allies in Washington" for stunting progress.

"So, year after year, our dependence on foreign oil grew. Families have been held hostage to spikes in gas prices. Good manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. And we've seen companies produce new energy technologies and high-skilled jobs not in America, but in countries like China, India and Germany," he said.

"It was essential -- for our economy, our security, and our planet -- that we finally tackle this challenge. That is why, since we took office, my administration has made an historic commitment to promote clean energy technology.

"This will mean hundreds of thousands of new American jobs by 2012. Jobs for contractors to install energy-saving windows and insulation. Jobs for factory workers to build high-tech vehicle batteries, electric cars, and hybrid trucks. Jobs for engineers and construction crews to create wind farms and solar plants that are going to double the renewable energy we can generate in this country. These are jobs building the future," Obama said.

David Cooper, director of Gateway's new Center for a Sustainable Future, said programming efforts have existed at the community college since 2007. "We developed a foundation for offering green business development and technical training programs in many areas ranging from solar photovoltaics to sustainable building design, to sustainable business development, alternative energy transportation, deconstruction, energy auditing, clean water systems, and grant proposal writing," Cooper said.

The college has participated in two training programs tied directly to ARRA funding: a statewide building performance and weatherization program and the two solar photovoltaic courses.

Ann Cohen, coordinator of Gateway's Workforce Development Institute, said the school's non-credit, certificate courses target the underemployed and unemployed.

"Short-term training can either give you the updated skills to make you more competitive in your existing field or it can give you the opportunity to reinvent yourself," she said.

U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, DConn., said five state-based technology companies will receive $120.9 million in Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits, supported by ARRA for clean energy projects.

The tax credits can be used to create new manufacturing jobs and increase the amounts of American-made parts and equipment used in clean energy projects.

"The recent economic downturn has had a drastic impact on our state's manufacturing industries," Dodd said. "These tax credits will allow Connecticut companies to create new jobs in Connecticut has well as help increase the amount of American-made parts and equipment used in clean energy projects." The recipients are: United Technologies Corp. in Middletown, to re-equip their facilities for the production of a fuel-efficient jet engine, $110.4 million; Roller Bearing Co. of America in Oxford, to produce a turbine blade and yaw bearings, which will be used in wind turbines, $4.1 million; and STR Inc., to manufacture encapsulants and film that hold a solar module together, $829,020.

UTC Power Corp. will receive $5.3 million to open a new facility to produce a low sound and emissions fuel cell plant, while Acuity Brands will receive $225,000 to re-quip its facility with equipment used in making lighting sensors.

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Entrepreneur profile: College job became career for Morales - El Paso Times

Posted: 25 Sep 2010 10:59 PM PDT

It was by chance that Edith Morales started in the office supply business. But it was through years of hard work and dedication that she became a successful entrepreneur in that field.

Morales, owner of El Paso-based Printek Supplies Inc., started working part time in 1992 at a call center for Daisytek International Inc., another office supply company, because it was close to the University of Texas at Dallas campus, where she was taking classes.

She continued to work at Daisytek after completing her bachelor's degree in business in 1997, rising through the ranks until she ran the company's Latin American division out of Miami. She also spent two years in Mexico City, opening a call center.

When Daisytek went bankrupt in 2002, Morales decided to start her own office supply company.

"It was basically the only thing I knew to do after the company went down," she said.

She was offered jobs with other companies but wanted the freedom of running her own business.

"I wanted to have control of my time, and I wanted to grow something for (my family), and build something that was our own," she said.

She and her husband, Eduardo, initially started Printek Supplies in Miami in 2002, selling to companies around Latin American. But soon, El Paso beckoned.

Morales was born in El Paso -- her mother had crossed the border from Mexico to give birth to her -- but was raised in Juárez. She returned to El Paso as a teenager, finishing her last two years at Socorro High School. She

wanted her children to grow up near family, so she and her husband moved back to El Paso in 2005, when she was pregnant with their second daughter.

When she first considered expanding her business to include El Paso, Morales found it difficult to compete with the national office supply chains.

"The biggest challenge was getting people to understand that they can buy locally," she said. "We help people understand that doing business locally can save them money, and besides saving money, they are growing the economy here."

She began to network. She talked with Teresa Gándara, owner of Pencil Cup Office Products Inc., also a small office supply business. She became involved in the chambers of commerce and Homegrown El Paso, as well as E-Women Network, where she connected with other women running businesses.

"When I met Edith, she was questioning whether or not she could begin her own business (locally)," Gándara said. "Having spoken to her, I realized she possessed the one single quality that was most important to an entrepreneur, and that was the passion to start her own business. The rest is history. She went into this business and became one of my competitiors. É She's holding her own. I'm very proud of her."

Printek sells mainly to suppliers who resell the office products -- pens, paper, printers, toner, office furniture and computer supplies. Printek staffers pride themselves on next-day delivery and excellent service.

"One of the things that they don't have, these big companies É is service," Morales said. "It's not all the time about the price. They can call right now, and since we're a small company, they can talk to the owner."

Morales started a second business in September 2009, a restaurant in East El Paso named Burrito Ocho. It can be difficult to run both companies and while taking care of her two daughters, she said. For now, she handles the marketing for Printek, and her husband runs the day-to-day operations while she is at the restaurant. But she's confident that she'll succeed.

"You can do whatever you want," she said. "Just as long as you believe it, you can do it, but never give up."

Hispanic entrepreneurs have played an integral role in El Paso's business and economic growth. The Paso del Norte Entrepreneurship Oral History Project, a partnership between the University of Texas at El Paso's Institute of Oral History and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City-based foundation devoted to entrepreneurship, identifies some of these prominent business owners and tells their stories of overcoming expectations to become successful role models.
This is the third in a series of stories about those entrepreneurs.
Transcripts and audio files of interviews with the entrepreneurs are available online at heho.utep.edu or by calling the Institute of Oral History at 747-7052.