AskEARN | Learning Guide: Hiring Pathways into Clean Energy Jobs for People with Disabilities Skip to main content

Learning Guide: Hiring Pathways into Clean Energy Jobs for People with Disabilities

Discover opportunities for creating access to good jobs and inclusive apprenticeships in the clean energy industry for people with disabilities.

This guide offers information about good jobs and inclusive apprenticeships in the clean energy industry for people with disabilities. It also includes policy-to-practice tips for employers. This resource accompanies EARN’s July 24, 2024 webinar, “Pathways for Hiring People with Disabilities into Clean Energy Jobs.”

Recent landmark legislation, such as the CHIPS and Science Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, sparked renewed investment in America’s workforce. These investments will help ensure America’s workforce can meet the employment and training needs of emerging and high-demand industries. To address skills gaps for businesses to retain the talent they need for high-demand jobs, the Federal Government has committed billions of dollars to workforce development initiatives. Many of these initiatives align with growing industries such as building and construction, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy. In accordance with the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Good Jobs Principles, this investment will result in many skilled trade job opportunities, opportunities that often start with Registered Apprenticeship programs and lead to work with union representation. For workers with disabilities, these jobs can provide access to safe, stable, and rewarding employment opportunities.

Led by DOL, the Good Jobs Initiative empowers workers in three important ways: 

  • Ensuring access to information about worker rights to minimum and prevailing wages, overtime, safe and healthy workplaces, and the right to form a union and bargain collectively with their employers.
  • Engaging employers as partners in improving job quality and creating workforce pathways to good jobs.
  • Supporting partnerships across federal agencies and providing technical assistance on grants, contracts, and other investments designed to improve job quality.

As part of this initiative, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, through its Good Jobs Challenge (PDF), awarded grants to workforce partnerships across 31 states and Puerto Rico. These awardees will develop and grow industry-led workforce training systems that break down historical silos that have prevented equitable economic growth. The initiative is projected to place over 50,000 U.S. workers into quality jobs, providing regional economies with the skilled, diverse workforce needed to meet their long-term and urgent labor supply needs.

The Biden-Harris Administration’s Roadmap to Good Jobs is a commitment to provide equitable opportunities for good-paying, family-sustaining jobs across the country by expanding free and affordable job training opportunities such as Registered Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship. The Roadmap encourages employers to hire workers based on the talent and skills they possess and not on their degrees. Additionally, it lays out key goals for federal funds to provide important support services, such as Child Care Stabilization funding, to help America’s workers, including people with disabilities, enter and remain in the workforce.

What are Registered Apprenticeships?

Registered Apprenticeships (PDF) are industry-led training programs that enable employers to develop and prepare their future workforces. Apprentices are paid, receive progressive raises, receive classroom and on-the-job training, and leave the program with nationally recognized credentials.

Did you know?

DOL enforces an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) regulation for Registered Apprenticeship programs to ensure businesses provide equitable access to good jobs.

Good Jobs and Inclusive Apprenticeships in Clean Energy

The Investing in America Agenda supports U.S.-based development in critical sectors like the clean energy field, including wind and solar energy. As a result, the clean energy sector is expanding rapidly. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the energy workforce grew by 3.8% in 2022 and added almost 300,000 jobs. However, people with disabilities are underrepresented in the energy workforce (PDF). In addition, many clean energy businesses have trouble finding and keeping skilled workers. Inclusive apprenticeship opportunities can help alleviate the staff shortages that are prevalent in this growing industry by linking skilled disabled workers to businesses. These programs also ensure disabled people can benefit from national investments in this industry and the well-paid, secure employment that results.

According to DOL, inclusive apprenticeships are designed to support full access and inclusion for all apprentices, including people with disabilities. Pre-apprenticeships and Registered Apprenticeship programs offer paths to in-demand occupations such as the clean energy industry. The National Apprenticeship Act regulations include affirmative action requirements for Registered Apprenticeship program sponsors and encourage sponsors with five or more apprentices to employ qualified people with disabilities. For disabled workers, equitable access to good jobs must include opportunities to participate in job training programs.

In addition, DOE states that employers with unionized workforces reported substantially less difficulty finding skilled workers. According to the Climate Jobs Institute (CJI) (PDF), increasing unionization rates is an important component of creating high-quality jobs in the green energy sector. CJI believes that stronger unionization must be “coupled with expanded job access to bring promising opportunities to people from frontline, marginalized, and underserved communities.” This includes people with disabilities.


Policy to Practice Quick Tips

Employers, apprenticeship sponsors, pre-apprenticeship programs, workforce development initiatives, and union education programs can take the following steps to support disability inclusion and inclusive apprenticeships in the clean energy industry:

  • Conduct proactive outreach and recruitment activities to find candidates with disabilities. Employers, unions, and education programs should work together to coordinate messaging and outreach to underrepresented groups, including disabled people.
    • FALA Technologies sets standards for workforce training and inclusion practices that have allowed them to create inclusive talent pipelines that meet business needs for a skilled and diverse workforce.
  • Develop partnerships with organizations that serve people with disabilities to grow candidate pipelines.
  • Encourage applicants, apprentices, and employees to self-identify. This is important to measure the number of people with disabilities in clean energy occupations and comply with requirements for federal contractors.
    • According to the Urban Institute (PDF), only a very small percentage of people in active apprenticeships self-identify as having a disability. Building partnerships can lead to an increase in the representation of disabled people and higher self-identification rates. For example, Adaptive Construction Solutions (ACS) had 19.9% of apprentices self-identify with a disability.
  • Audit all processes throughout the employment lifecycle, such as job applications, pre-screening activities, and onboarding and training programs, to improve physical accessibility and digital accessibility. This is especially important for union education programs and other “learn while you earn” opportunities that involve an instructional component, such as pre-apprenticeships and career pathway training.
  • Provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities from the start so they can participate fully and perform their job duties successfully. This might include adjustments such as skills-based assessments, job coaches, and alternative testing accommodations.
    • Accommodations are often low in cost and easy to implement – for example, dome mirrors at worksites can help workers with hearing disabilities avoid moving equipment.

Resources to Support Disability Inclusion in Good Jobs

Resources from EARN and DOL's Office of Disability Employment Policy’s (ODEP) Policy Development and Technical Assistance Centers 

Resources from DOL

Related Research Articles