The Employ Florida Banner Centers are developed to enhance Florida’s economic development efforts by providing training for workers (entry, advanced and skills upgrades) in high value industries caused by changes in markets or technologies. The Banner Center concept requires a collaborative effort between recognized experts in the selected industry, the educational providers, representatives from the industry and/or industry associations, the local business development council and the regional workforce board.

The Alternative Energy Banner Center was created in February 2008 by Workforce Florida, Inc. to make alternative energy training available throughout Florida.

Alternative energy technology is an educational area in which existing curriculum and educational programs do not exist either in Florida or in the U.S.  Training is not routinely available at the traditional vocational schools, community colleges or universities (nor is it designed for workforce deployment).

This banner center will initially focus on the areas of solar thermal (solar water heating and pool heating) and photovoltaics (solar electricity). Both programs are intended for students, regardless of skill level.

The program will first train the trainer, and then the trained instructors will offer programs to students. The results from the program offerings will be analyzed and used as feedback to update and finalize the curriculum.  This effort will take one year.  After the first year, the plan will be expanded in order that the program can be offered throughout Florida at affiliated banner centers (other Community Colleges and Tech Centers).

Organization

The lead organization to meet the training goal is the Florida Solar Energy Center, a research, training and education organization of the University of Central Florida.

FSEC’s partners that will conduct the training are:

• Brevard Community College in Cocoa, FL
• Westside Tech in Orlando, FL
• Tallahassee Community College, Tallahassee, FL
• Broward Community College, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. 

Other partners include:

• Brevard Workforce Board
• Florida Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation

 

Advisory Council and Focus Group

Both the Advisory Council and the Focus Groups are required to meet three times during the one-year project and their purposes are to gather information regarding the needs of industry. Specifically the two groups provide a business forum for training needs, delivery methods and future trends. Advisory Committee members include a representative from the solar industry, workforce development boards, utility companies and the education partners. The Focus Group is primarily industry and educational representatives. 

It is expected that the educational activities of the Community Colleges may expand the initial training into an Associate of Science Degree in Alternative Energy as well as offer certificate or non-credit training in the specialized areas. The vocational schools may provide a certificate in solar thermal or photovoltaic installation. A critical component of the partner and affiliated sites’ instructional programs will be hands-on experiential learning and in some cases on-the-job training. The Banner Center will assist the affiliate centers to match industry partners performing actual installations for on the job experience.