According to the American Wind Energy Association, wind energy helps strengthen the construction industry in the United States every year. Construction always has been a core industry for the U.S. economy, and wind energy has provided many construction companies with new business opportunities. These range from designing farms and turbines to building parts for many turbines in America.

On this video created by WindTV, Rolling Hills wind project construction superintendent, James Bulman, and project manager Ryan Januszenski describe their feelings toward the wind energy industry and the opportunities it has provided.

According to TechCareers: Wind Energy Technicians, the U.S. has led the world in wind power generation and has hundreds of companies dedicated solely to the production of wind energy.

The American Wind Energy Association statistics show Texas leading in U.S. wind resource measurements and predict that wind power “could provide 19 times the state’s current electricity needs.”

The wind energy industry continues to grow and is predicted by the U.S. Department of Energy in the George W. Bush administration to support 500,000 jobs by 2030. Another study predicts that under the right tax conditions, the wind industry could grow to 100,000 within the next four years.

Opportunities are rising for the wind power industry.

Pick up a copy of TechCareers: Wind Energy Technicians by Mike Jones to learn more about potential careers in wind energy.

– Emilly

Though rough economic times brought news of cuts and slowdowns, the Federal Aviation Administration forecasts long-term growth in the aviation industry. It also reports commercial aviation remains on track to carry one billion passengers by 2021. With that forecast, pilot jobs will be in demand.

Only a little more than a century ago, the Wright brothers took to the sky helping the industry to soar. Now, the Joseph T. Nall Report, published annually by the Aircraft  Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), says the number of aircraft in use will roughly double every decade.

Pilots can choose a number of paths, requiring differing certifications:

• Private pilot — Certified pilots can fly passengers for personal or business. One only has to be 17 to get certified this way, but as always, one must pass various tests before flying with friends on board.
• Certified flight instructor — These may include single-engine, multi-engine, helicopter or certified flight instructor instrument.
• Commercial pilot — Anyone 18 years or older with a FAA commercial pilot certificate and at least 250 hours of flight time can fly commercially.
• Airline transport pilot — You can be an airline transport pilot if you are 23 years or older and already have a private and commercial certificate, along with at least 1,500 hours of flight time.
• Multi-engine pilot — Many major airlines require sessions in a simulator and regular proficiency exams.

TechCareers: Aviation Pilots, written by Jodi Wheatley, also contains detailed information about the education and training necessary to become a pilot and industry standards.

Wheatley earned her bachelor’s degree in TV and Film Production from the Journalism, Broadcasting and Film School at Trinity University in San Antonio. After many years working in local television, Wheatley taught technical/communications writing for TSTC. She is spokesperson for the Texas Department of Transportation

-Sheila

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I grew up, hearing that I would be college-bound. My parents, though they both desired to go to college, made life choices based on economics. Their generation did a good job of selling four-year degrees to us, but now we have good-paying technical jobs available but not enough workers to fill them. These jobs require two-year courses or certification programs. Apparently, many believe it’s an image problem that makes work associated with technical schools seem inferior to four-year college degrees in business or history.

Take South Dakota, for example. The state, according to an ArgusLeader.com article, faces a shortage of workers interested in skilled trades such as manufacturing, electrical work, machining and welding. In fact, Southeast Tech cut its precision machining program last year because of lack of student interest.

“By and large, we are at least two generations of saying, ‘It’s a college degree that will get you ahead, not a manufacturing career,” Southeast Tech President Jeff Holcomb said. “Manufacturing as a whole has an image of being dirty, dark and dingy and sweatshopish, and that is as far from the truth as it can be. Today’s manufacturing is very automated, very technical and very clean … light years from what it was 30 years ago.”

One key to getting more students into technical careers is starting as young as middle school and informing students of opportunities. Georgia just became one of the few remaining states to require students to pick a career path starting in ninth grade.

According to an article in the Metro Atlanta state news, the objective is to raise career and college readiness for all students. Career pathways initiatives of some degree are already in place in most states.

If students hope to land jobs in the future – nearly half of which are forecast to go to people with an associate degree or occupational certificate – then Georgia has to make this move, said State School Superintendent John Barge.

“We must change how and what we do in K-12 education,” Barge said. “The status quo isn’t working, given the remedial courses required of many Georgia college students and the business community’s complaint that many graduates entering the work force lack essential skills.”

-Sheila

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In the world of technical entrepreneurship, minorities are definitely the lesser seen.   When the words “CEO” or “president” are mentioned, the image that comes to most is that of a Caucasian man. African-Americans and Hispanics are workers, but hardly ever bosses. Where does this problem start? Adolescence. 

Growing up, minority children are less likely to see their parents and relatives in high-power careers. According to Emile Cambry Jr., founder of 21^st Century Youth Project, a program that teaches young students to develop mobile applications, educates them about entrepreneurship and connects them with tech-business mentors, “If you don’t hear, ‘your uncle is an engineer,’ or ‘your dad worked in that kind of environment,’ then you’re not exposed to what’s possible.”

These students need to be taught early in life they can, too, work in a technical position. The 21^st Century Youth Project shows them they can create something cool and functional even at a young age.

Cambry urges them to “follow that path to becoming leaders in their schools and communities.”

In a recent blog, Cambry attempts to tackle the explanation as to why there aren’t more minorities in technical entrepreneurship:

Education. While not trying to say that there are a lack of highly educated minorities, Cambry mentions that most of the great leaders of the world (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, etc.) grew up with either perfect resources and timing or a parent with a technical background. Most minorities don’t grow up in this kind of educational environment and are therefore hindered.

Funding. Many venture capitalists choose the companies they invest in with trends. Software designed to show investors where successes come from and what is popular is a huge part of investing. These venture capitalists overload one industry, and according to Cambry, this sort of selective bias accounts for a portion of why minorities never get to the table to discuss term-sheets.

Mentorship. African-American and Latino venture capitalists are hard to come by. While many African-American and Latino leaders claim to mentor, not many have attempted to pitch for venture capital or raised a venture with high growth. The lack of mentors with this type of experience deters young minorities from being successful technical entrepreneurs.

Cambry says the 21^st Century Youth Project’s mission is to engage and expose students to these paths as early as possible so they can potentially develop a love for programming and be united with like-minded individuals.

“Working with some school systems, it’s baffling to me how schools are slow to adopt our program, something that’s free for students and school districts alike,” Cambry says. “With minorities adopting smartphones at the fastest rates, wouldn’t it only make sense to instruct us to create for the platforms we consume?”

-Debra

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We Can Still Do It!

For a long time, men ruled the workforce. A woman’s place was in the home with her children, taking care of the house. This was true until World War Two, when women stepped up to the plate and took over the technical jobs back home. In today’s society, women are accepted as being a major part of the work force. However, many male-dominated occupations remain, especially those in technical career fields. Needless to say, despite continual efforts to reverse this, women still face professional barriers.

This old way of thought believed men to be more capable because they are the physically stronger gender. Many assumed manual labor should be done by a man. However, today’s welders do not need to be physically strong but technologically apt. In recent years, this has presented new job opportunities for women in fields such as radiation protection technology and avionics.

According to Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College, many in the welding industry believe women possess the characteristics of patience and good hand-eye coordination, which makes for a good welder. Women continually prove themselves capable, but they do have difficulty finding work[skb1] . Statistically, when competing for the same job, a man is most likely to be hired over a female contender. According to a study conducted by Frankie Sanots Laanan and Soko Starobin at Iowa State University, women with associate degrees make about $10,000 less five years after graduation than men who hadn’t graduated from college.

Another reason for a male-dominated workforce is the stereotypical concept of motherhood. It is sometimes thought, even today, mothers should not work but should be full-time caretakers of their children and their home. What this way of thinking does not account for is in this day and age, for those in the lower middle class and under, the money the father of the household brings in is often not enough to cover all of the family’s expenses. So the mother and father often share the responsibility of providing. At times, the stay-at-home parent is even the father.

However, despite all these things working against them, women have been making progress in so many of the technical fields. The United States Department of Labor says that there was over a 95 percent increase in women working as computer engineers alone from the years 2000-2010. Organizations such as Women in Aviation International (WAI) support women going into these technical fields by providing scholarships.

There is a great deal of support, and a lot of progress is being made. I hope not only for my sake but also for the sake of the generations of daughters, mothers, and wives to come, the progress never stops, and we show the world exactly what a woman’s job is.

-Elisabeth

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