This scan highlights the trends, activities, and changes that are underway in several key industries that will likely make up a significant portion of the emerging green economy. For purposes of this report, the shorthand term "green" is used to represent the various new processes, technologies and materials that will drive a more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient approach to conducting business.

This report does not intend to define specific green jobs, but generally sees green jobs as both existing and emerging occupations across a wide range of industries engaged in working with these new green processes, materials, or technologies.

Construction, transportation, advanced manufacturing, utilities, and building maintenance are critical industries at the forefront of our nation's push to be more energy efficient, less dependent on oil and more environmentally and ecologically sound. Each of these industries depends on its Registered Apprenticeship and rigorous training programs to prepare and educate existing and emerging workers in a variety of occupations.

At the core of the National Apprenticeship System is a vast and dedicated leadership group of almost 30,000 sponsors-both labor and businesses-with deep roots in Registered Apprenticeship and a keen understanding of how to train highly skilled workers to meet market demand. As such, this environmental scan set out to get a baseline understanding of how key Registered Apprenticeship program sponsors and other industries and organizations engaged in training their workforces are preparing to meet the demands of the green economy.

To better understand the impact of green and implications for policy development, ETA's Office of Apprenticeship (OA) met, during March and April of 2009, with 14 stakeholders representing these critical industries. These interviews centered on three key areas:

• Assessing the impact of green on their industries;

• Training and education requirements for the green economy; and

• Partnerships and collaborations designed to meet the rapidly changing market for green.

The information gathered throughout this process has resulted in some important considerations for Federal, state and local workforce development leaders and partners. Not only are Registered Apprenticeship programs preparing to develop the future workforce for the green economy, but much of the current training and curriculum around green processes, technologies, and materials in these industries is already being utilized by these stakeholders.

In essence, green is not a new approach for the interviewed stakeholders. Each of them expressed vast knowledge of how market demands for more green practices will affect their industries and specific occupations as well as how their organization will meet the potential increased demand. Consequently, stakeholders re-emphasized that Registered Apprenticeship is positioned to help lead the training of our nation's green-collar workforce. In fact, as materials and market demands change, Registered Apprenticeship stakeholders and the organizations they support are consistently first-to-market in training both existing and new workers.

Access to Report (requires registration on WWW.WORKFORCE3ONE.ORG.)

Apprenticeship "Community of Practice"

ETA's Registered Apprenticeship Webpage

Career Voyages: Apprenticeship by Industry

The Benefits and Challenges of Registered Apprenticeship: The Sponsors' Perspective

Findings show that 97 percent of Registered Apprenticeship sponsors-employers and labor-management programs alike- are highly satisfied with the model and would recommend it to other businesses. More than 80 percent of sponsors say that they use Registered Apprenticeship to meet their need for skilled workers. Another 72 percent say that Registered Apprenticeship helps them show which workers have needed skills; and 68 percent feel that the model raises productivity, strengthens worker morale and pride and improves worker safety. Few other publicly funded workforce programs have this level of satisfaction from employers and labor-management partnerships.

Training and Employment Guidance Letter 2-07: Leveraging Registered Apprenticeship as a Workforce Development Strategy for the Workforce Investment System