Job Training

The Single-family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) Program provides a foundation for promoting and building a sustainable solar industry in California by making workforce development and job training an integral part of the program. The SASH Program will potentially provide solar installation opportunities to over 120,000 job trainees and volunteers throughout California, totaling more than one million hours of hands-on solar installation experience.

Here at GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles we are working to share the sun with everyone this summer and this June we celebrated the soltice with Randy Bishop, CEO and Cofounder of Verengo Solar, and a highly professional team of Verengo volunteers, who installed a 2.3 kW solar electric system for the Carrillo Family of Long Beach

GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles closed out the last days of March with solar electric systems installed at no cost for two low-income families on 124th Street in Compton. These solar installation projects were supported by a grant from the Southern California Gas Company, which is supporting 25 solar electric installations for low-income families in 2012 as part of their Bettering the Air We Breathe Campaign.

GRID IE volunteers come from all walks of life.

Once again, a partnership between GRID Alternatives and a local employment training center has paid off for someone who wanted to join the ranks of the solar industry. Jon Smith, who attended Cabrillo College of Aptos, has been hired as a solar installer by REC Solar.

When Denise Alvarez signed up for the Green Building Construction program at the Center for Employment Training, she never imagined she’d be working on the roof with the CEO of SunPower. But last Friday, she joined GRID and a team of SunPower employees and executives...

When Javier Pinos first came to GRID Alternatives last spring to volunteer he was studying Level 2 Photovaltaics at the East Los Angeles Skills Center. He was eager to work with GRID on an actual solar electric installation for a local low-income family to complement his academic learning and gain the hands-on experience that would prepare him for employment.

Thank you SMUD for your participation!

Hector Villegas was unemployed and although he had a desire to work in the green energy field, he lacked the necessary skills to land a job. That all changed when he became a volunteer with GRID Alternatives and gained the knowledge and experience he needed to land his dream job.

"Living in Japan, you see how everything they do is based on saving something, whether it's energy, water or other resources," said Norm Graham. "That's the life they live. Every other house in Japan had solar panels. I thought "why can't we have that here in America?"