Stimulus dollars sought to help Towson teach green - Baltimore Business Journal:

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The state is in line to receivednearly $53 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for energy and conservation efforts, such as making renta l homes more energy efficient. The majoritg of that money will be distributec to local governments and nonprofits to launcgspecific projects. The work will require a rangre ofgreen expertise, from consultants and auditors able to assess a project’w energy efficiency.
Towson’s Extended Educatiobn and OnlineLearning program, which trainds workers to help them find new jobs, is developingb a range of new courses to give workeras the skills they need to compete for thosee jobs, said Director Mike Schroder said he hopes to partner with statr agencies, including the Maryland Department of the Environmenft and the Maryland Energy Administration, to seek federak stimulus money to establish and fund those courses. Schroder said the wave of layoffes hitting Greater Baltimore has prompted a dramatic increasw in the number of unemployed workerds seeking additional training atthe university.
The Extended Education program already offers onlineand on-sitwe training in a range of fields includin information technology, Homeland Security, human resourcess and health. Schroder said he hopes to expand the programm into a number of fields tied to the including training on energuy efficiencyand weatherization. State leaders hope to create hundreds of new jobs inthose fields, bolstered by the federapl stimulus dollars. “This investment in energy solutionzs for our state will be an additional catalysf for strengtheningour economy, creating new green-colladr jobs for our workers and helpingy communities and residents lower their energy Gov.
Martin O’Malley said in a statement aboutthe $53 million in energy-tied stimulus It’s just one of numerousa green efforts undertaken by Greatert Baltimore’s colleges and universities, including the , and the , Baltimore County. Driven by a desire to reducd their energy costs and to meet the wishes of theiestudent bodies, the colleges are incorporating gree practices on their campuses. That’s includef simple things like adjusting their temperature settingw to meeting environmental building standards with their newconstruction projects.
Greebn isn’t the only field in Maryland that’s still growing, Schroderf noted, and the university has also developed a number of course s to help train job seekers for work under the federao Base Realignment andClosure plan. A ranger of positions are being created at FortGeorge G. Mead e and Aberdeen Proving Ground, from informationj technology to business managementand procurement, and the Extended Education program is able to train workere in those fields and help them find jobs at the military bases. Towson’s work force development a non-credit offering from the university, was establishedc about five years ago.
It workas with employers from stated and localgovernment agencies, defense contractors and privatr employers like It also workz closely with the state labor department and its networkm of local job centers, and has helpecd train an estimated 12,000 workers since its Schroder said.