Published: September 24, 2009 12:24 am      

EMPLOYMENT: Many flock to trade school as economy turns green

A new generation of tradespeople is emerging here and throughout the nation but some of them may still be sitting in the cubicle next to you.

Existing contractors looking for an edge and white collar pencil pushers alike are going back to school with the hope of adapting to a changing job market, said Erie-1 BOCES Associate Director for Adult Education Melody Jason.

She said demand for training tradespeople in particular, sometimes as a second career, has soared recently.

“We’re filling classes faster than we can put them together,” she said of demand for training in areas like electrical and HVAC already booked through the spring session.

Other opportunities like a 1,000-hour nursing course continues to be popular and is packed until October 2010.

It’s easy to draw a correlation between which courses are full at BOCES and national employment trends, mainly because the modern list of courses BOCES offers is based on demand statistics provided by the United States Department of Labor.

These days, they include courses far beyond those in auto mechanics or cosmetology you may recall from your high school years. For instance, adult students training in HVAC can gain exposure to geothermal technology while the electrician’s course load has come to also include solar energy technology.

“We’re not training for positions that are not going to be hiring,” Jason said. “We’re not just picking courses out of the sky.”

Along those lines, perhaps the most emergent new field is what’s called weatherization, where tradesmen and novices alike are scrambling to learn the ins and outs of modern home insulation techniques.

Behind the push is the fact that billions of dollars in federal stimulus programs, tax credits and other incentives are almost ready to start flowing as part of the “green” push included in President Obama’s stimulus package passed last winter. That is a big reason companies like insulation experts New Buffalo Impact recently opened a training division and are also working with BOCES to train existing contractors on a model home in a warehouse in the City of Tonawanda.

“They’re at the stage right now where a lot of the programs are being developed and the grants are being applied for — by the end of the year all of the grants are supposed to be awarded,” Buffalo Impact Vice President Brian Paterson said. “Those are the people who will be doing the work when the federal funding comes down the line.”

He said there are essentially two pots of money, one to support future training of contractors in “green” techniques through the labor department and another to become available to homeowners who increase the energy efficiency of their homes. Though the courses offered there are roughly $500 a pop and are admittedly cost prohibitive for the average layman looking to expand his marketability, Paterson said future subsidies from the labor department may be available to help.

The classes, begun in the spring, are open to the public, but have mostly served existing contractors (about 50 of them since June) whose employers are looking for a piece of the new action.

But BOCES has also partnered with Impact for use of their model home to train students beginning in January. The structure, utilizing various common exterior and interior materials, is housed inside a warehouse at 34 Peuquet Parkway in Tonawanda.

“We just started the training division a couple of months back so we haven’t taken on any of our trainees as employees here yet,” Paterson said ... “We have people from as far away as New Jersey or Brooklyn and then they go back to where they came from and apply what they learned here.”

On the other hand, there are also different reasons for some people to branch out.

Carl Miller, 34, has a chemistry degree from the University of Buffalo and works at a consumer product testing laboratory in Amherst called Bureau Veritas. He is also in his third year of night school for a normally three-year auto mechanics certification course offered through Erie Community College.

He is not, however, looking to make a career out of it.

Instead, it all started when five years ago he bought his dream car, a 1982 Corvette C-3 and wanted to restore it.

“When I found out what ECC does, you can actually work on your own car,” Miller said. “I thought that was a golden opportunity to learn but also to fix my car.”

Miller, however, is also willing to admit he can save a lot of money by avoiding the repair man.

A gas line on his Camry cost him $20 to replace recently, and he estimated a dealership (the most expensive option) could have charged him a couple of hundred dollars in labor required to get to it.

“I think it extends opportunities that you might be able to take advantage of,” he said. “There’s always the moonlighting aspect of it — hey, I’ve got this in my back pocket, but I love it and that’s kind of first and foremost how I look at it.”

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.