By Marla Dickinson

Reporting from California City, Calif. — One man in the classroom earned more than $100,000 framing tract homes during the building heyday. Another installed pools and piloted a backhoe. Behind him sat a young father who made a good living swinging a hammer in southern Utah.

But that was before construction jobs vanished like a fast-moving dust storm in this blustery high desert. Hard times have brought them to a classroom in rural Kern County to learn a different trade. Tonight’s lesson: how to avoid death and dismemberment.

This is Wind Technology Boot Camp at Cerro Coso Community College, where eight weeks of study and $1,000 in tuition might lead to a job repairing mammoth wind turbines like the ones sprouting up across this region.The work requires smarts and stamina. It is potentially dangerous. Candidates need good knees, a cool head — and a stomach for heights.

“I’ve seen guys just freeze halfway up the tower,” said instructor Merritt Mays, a baby-faced former Marine, who at 29 is already a grizzled veteran in this young industry.

For those who can hack it, starting pay ranges from $15 to $20 an hour. Crack technicians can make six figures a year. Wind farms are hiring and probably will be for years to come. That’s luring hard hats like 49-year-old Chuck Patterson back to school, despite the inherent risks of working 300 feet in the air. ”This is where the money’s going to be,” said the Ridgecrest, Calif., contractor, who likes the idea of a steady paycheck after years of construction boom and bust.

As in previous recessions, this economic downturn is boosting enrollment at community colleges and vocational schools. Classrooms are swelling with workers from hard-hit industries who are looking to change careers.

Educators say the difference this time is the surging interest
in so-called green-collar jobs. President Obama wants to create
5 million of them over the next decade. What isn’t clear is how
the U.S. is going to prepare this workforce.

Technical education for renewable-energy workers is scarce,
particularly for the fast-growing wind industry. Only a handful
of wind programs operate in community colleges. Cerro Coso
filled the 15 slots in its boot camp within hours. The next
course is already full.

The U.S. last year surpassed Germany as the world’s No. 1
wind-powered nation, with more than 25,000 megawatts in place.
Wind could supply 20% of America’s electricity needs by 2030,
up from less than 1% now, according to a recent Energy
Department report.

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source: L.A. Times