The Race to Decarbonize America Needs More Workers

Part of the current labor issue stems from the patchwork training system in the US, which includes apprenticeships run by trade unions, employer-sponsored programs, and vocational schools where students must pay tuition out of pocket. “We have this system in America where you decide what you want to do, you go learn all about it in school, and then you go try the job and realize if you like it or not after you’ve spent $100,000,” says Todd Vachon, who studies labor and employment relations at Rutgers University. “We’re short on the educational infrastructure, but we’re also short on the people pursuing the trades.” 

On the other hand, a country like Germany has a national training program in which the education system and the labor market are in close communication. That better supports workers and makes the country more adaptable to economic shifts, like the transition to green technologies, Vachon says. “Germany always is the go-to example,” he says, “both in terms of how they’ve dealt with transitions, but also their education infrastructure is just more…