Eric Cortes began his career at GRID Central Valley in September 2016 as a Volunteer SolarCorps Fellow. Reflecting on his experience, he says that the SolarCorps Fellowship program was a great learning opportunity. Eric came into GRID without any knowledge of the solar industry, the only thing he knew about solar was that his outdoor lights was powered by the sun. He worked in the Volunteerism Department for 2 1/2 years. During his time in Volunteerism he worked with volunteers, partners, high school students and teachers. Eric also coordinated installations for volunteers, transported trainees to home sites and assisted them with the installations.
In 2019, Eric was promoted to Workforce & Training Programs Manager and began working directly with trainees helping them find jobs in the solar industry. Currently, he oversees the Workforce Department and all training programs that we run in the GRID Central Valley Training Center. His day-to-day activities have been changing every year as we grow our programs but what keeps him motivated is our trainees. It brings Eric so much joy to see our trainees get jobs. He says to this day he’s still learning but wouldn't be here without the people that gave him a chance and believed in him. Lastly, he wouldn't be here without his team in the training center, and he would like to thank his team for their generous support and ready to go attitude.