The biggest threat to our fight against the climate crisis is a severe lack of electricians. To meet our climate goals the U.S. will need to develop roughly one million new electricians in the next decade.
After the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, we are increasing our efforts to "electrifying everything" while decarbonizing our electrical generation sources. However, we do not have the workforce to build and maintain this crucial electric transition. Without significant intervention, we will fall 600,000 electricians short. Come be a part of the solution.
ReVision is addressing this problem by highlighting a new message at the center of our core business: electricians will save the world. Internally and in our communities, we will grow awareness and access to viable trades careers. In the coming months we will be launching new initiatives across three areas of focus:
Reaching our climate goals will require a huge collective shift in our perception of the trades and the work needed to build an electrified, equitable future. Trades professionals often embody qualities that mainstream U.S. culture values: financial security, self-sufficiency, and autonomy. However, our educational system has marginalized the career prospects of the construction trades for decades. Technical education in the U.S. is largely perceived as second-class programming designed for students that might otherwise drop out of school.
We need to reverse workforce trends and the perception of the construction trades if we are going to act on climate in a real and meaningful way. ReVision has made it a crucial part of our mission to engage our communities in changing this narrative.
Through our work with schools and community organizations we will bring awareness and understanding of the viability and importance of trades careers to students, parents, and educators across northern New England.
Despite the great need for electricians, many who are interested in such a career often find themselves without adequate support or a clear pathway to achieve their professional goals. ReVision Energy secured funding from the Maine Governor’s Energy Office to support coordinated outreach across Maine to highlight the importance of clean energy careers for aspiring professionals and our communities.
With this grant, we will develop tools and resources to assist job seekers and students identify solar career pathways. We will also launch a pre-apprenticeship program to serve communities historically excluded from the construction trades and the workforce more generally, clearly defining the career pathways for these individuals and for other aspiring solar professionals in Maine, and providing access to these career pathways. We plan on building on these efforts to bring them into our other states and communities there.
Through our Electricians Will Save the World campaign, ReVision will launch a coordinated outreach across New England to help our kids, parents, and educators better understand the importance of clean energy careers for our aspiring professionals and greater communities.
ReVision Energy's own mission depends on our ability, as an industry, to develop a talented, diverse, passionate electrician workforce. We rarely recruit new co-owners from a pool of experienced solar professionals. Instead, we hire routinely based on potential and make significant investments in mentoring and training aspiring renewable energy professionals and assist them in transferring their skills and talents from another field into ours.
The ReVision Energy Electrical Apprenticeship Program offers an alternative approach to traditional licensing pathways. It also solves for the problem that much of our work requires supervision by a journeyperson or master electrician who can supervise a limited number of apprentices.
Since 2018, REEAP has allowed more than 25 apprentices achieve their electrical licenses. We currently have 60 co-owners enrolled in the program on their way to licensure. Our apprenticeship program offers a combination of online courses, in-person instruction, and on-the-job learning, which provides our employees with the opportunity to prioritize their education on a schedule that is largely self-driven.
Sound appealing? View apprenticeship positions on our career page →
In the coming year, thanks to funding from the Maine Department of Labor, we will be developing four new apprenticeships in customer service, technical sales, and management. We will also adapt REEAP to better support the development of heat pump installers, service technicians, and crew leads. Our new apprenticeships are:
As we develop our campaigns to bring awareness and access to electrical careers, we'll call upon our Solar Champion community to help up get the word out.