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Governor Maura Healey met with climate reporter Sabrina Shankman on Thursday Globe Summit to debate how Massachusetts is making a workforce to combat the climate crisis.
Healey spoke to an audience on the Harvard Club of Boston, with the talk also being streamed live for those at home to observe.
The governor began the discussion by emphasizing the importance of collaboration between government, regions and the private sector to get climate work done.
“We all have to work together,” she said. “The clean energy industry is thriving in Massachusetts.”
But to fulfill the state's ambitious climate goals, Healey said, “we need the workforce to do it.”
Building this workforce starts within the classroom, based on Healey.
Healey spoke a few program where highschool students receive experiential learning about careers within the energy sector, and one other Massachusetts Clean Energy Center initiative that funds and supports them Training programs.
Healey said the programs are geared toward low-income students and “people who haven't had as much exposure to certain career options.”
“Having spent a lot of time with young people, this is the case,” she said. “With the energy they bring here, they want to be part of this culture.”
Removing barriers to community college attendance and improving job training, including a program Healey said training the offshore wind workforce will even help meet the needs of the energy industry.
Healey said she views responding to climate change as a contest.
“We know what we have to do with regard to climate protection. The workforce is really the key to this,” she said. “Whoever figures out this personnel component first wins.”
As a member state of the US Climate AllianceHealey said one among the things she is concentrated on is creating a million apprenticeships by 2035.
She said she hopes Massachusetts will “lead by example” to scale its programs through the alliance.
Healey also addressed concerns a few move away from the fossil fuel industry.
Healey recently held a gathering consisting of governors from New England and counterparts from some Canadian provinces who committed to working together on clean energy initiatives. She said she made sure there was “labor at the table” on the meeting earlier this month.
“There are those who have worked in the fossil fuel industry who have skills and talents that now need to be transferred to the renewable energy industry,” she said. “What we’re doing is that connection between work and the workforce and a transition to clean energy.”
According to Healey, seven out of 10 in-demand clean energy jobs in Massachusetts have a union training program.
Shankman ended the discussion by asking Healey what clean energy job she would love to have and why.
Healey said it might be “pretty cool” to be one among the “people who have to go down and install the stuff deep down in the sea.”
“There are so many jobs out there,” she said. “Everything will have to do with it at some point.”
image credit : www.boston.com