Creating Pathways Into Clean Energy: Student Energy Careers Training

SE Career Training provides students with their first opportunity to execute a real-world energy project sourced from partner organisations and scale the internship experience globally to students without networks normally required to get “your foot in the door.” 

The push towards renewable energy has grown rapidly over the last 10 years, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) reported that almost 11.5 million people were employed in the clean energy sector in 2019 and it’s expected to grow by almost 5.5 million more jobs by 2023. 

This rapid growth requires skilled workers who understand the energy system and are readily employable, but traditional degree programs haven’t kept up and this has created a gap between the students graduating from those programs and the opportunities available in the sector. Due to the pandemic and lack of experience, getting an internship or entry-level role has become more dependent on networking and privileged social capital, which creates less inclusion in the workforce given the systemic issues that lead to inequitable opportunities in networks and education.

To address this gap, we are launching a new program called “Student Energy Career Training”. SE Career Training provides students with their first opportunity to execute a real-world energy project sourced from partner organisations and scale the internship experience globally to students without networks normally required to get “your foot in the door.” 

This four month cohort-based intensive program aims to fill the emerging gap between a large contingent of youth seeking to perform innovative work and transform our energy system but lack access to necessary baseline training and skills required for entry-level roles and internships.

SE Career Training will connect students with mentors from leading energy organizations to guide them through a general track that provides them with knowledge tools to understand the energy system, project management, data-driven decision making, and practical career coaching to get them job-ready. 

The rest of the program will revolve around a capstone project that will test and improve students’ technical skills in our four specialization tracks: Energy Policy Analysis, Energy Market Analysis, Project Development, and Project Finance.

If you would like to be the first to know when applications open for SE Careers Training then fill out this Expression of Interest form to stay in the loop on updates!

For more information or inquiries about partnership on SE Career Training or to submit a project please contact: etct@studentenergy.org 

Link to soft launch webinar (The Future of Energy’s Workforce)