About SkillWorks › Green Collar Career Pathways Initiative
With generous support from the Barr Foundation, the Garfield Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, and the Chorus Foundation, SkillWorks is launching a Green Collar Career Pathways Initiative.
Building pathways to green collar jobs fits squarely within the SkillWorks model of creating opportunities for low-income, low-skilled adults to access jobs in industries with growing regional importance. Through this new initiative, SkillWorks will utilize its expertise and collaborative infrastructure in sectoral workforce development to help shape the development of green collar career pathways in Massachusetts.
The overall goal of SkillWorks' "Green Jobs Initiative" is twofold:
- to support emerging workforce development efforts in "green" industries; and
- to ensure access to green collar career pathways by lower skilled, low-income adults.
We will strive to achieve these goals by:
- building the capacity of community-based green job training programs;
- building a community of funders to coordinate investments in the green sector;
- engaging in advocacy to ensure green sector policies and public investments foster job creation and are influenced by sound workforce development principles;
- supporting research efforts in order to provide the community with labor market information and best practice models; and
- increasing training opportunities for lower-income, lower-skilled adults that lead to employment in green collar jobs.