Job Training

It was a hot day in Selma, California, but that didn't stop ten high school students from putting their classroom instruction to practical use on a local rooftop.

We're committed, as always, to a solar energy revolution whose benefits include everyone. That's why for the next multifamily partnership planned in the region, we intend to go one step further than the basic benefits of clean energy and ensure that residents of the multifamily housing project can be involved in installing our system!

It was a good day for solar jobs here at GRID Bay Area. It started with an email from an employer partner saying they just hired one of our trainees. Then came the news from local job training partner,Rising Sun Energy Center (Rising Sun), that out of a group of 10 that had just days ago finished a two-week long solar installation training with GRID, 4 trainees had been hired into solar positions and even more already had interviews lined up. That gives us a lot to celebrate!

Mayor Aja Brown stopped by our install site in Compton on May 7 to see what a non-profit that helps low-income people go solar while promoting good-paying jobs for good people really looks like!

During the fair, more than 200 resumes were collected, and the event drew well over that number of people throughout the day to network, probe L.A.'s hiring landscape, and have questions answered.

When undergraduate and graduate students spend a week at GRIDLA activities, everything from the site visits to the homeowner install is a step preparing them to have future impact beyond the university.

"Under different circumstances I would have never met or been in the same room as a UCLA student or engineer or someone who works for Tesla," he says, describing some of his past work meetings with GRID Alternatives.

GRID Alternatives supports equity and second chances for all. We see the solar industry as a vehicle to open up opportunity for everyone, and in that spirit, we'll be highlighting success stories from returning citizens.

In its first time funding GRIDLA, DYSF is making yearlong solar education possible for individuals ages 16 to 24.