Women and Green Jobs (a program of DOL’s Women’s Bureau)

This program consists of 1) Regional roundtables 2) “A Woman’s Guide to Green Jobs” 3) Green jobs pilot projects. 1) For the first time at the Department of Labor, leading women from labor, business, academia, government, and nonprofits around the country shared how they are shaping our green economic strategy and how we can work together to ensure that women have access to the green economy. 2) The Women’s Bureau’s guidebook, “A Woman’s Guide to Green Jobs,” along with a series of seven national teleconference calls and fact sheets on green jobs for women, will provide women workers and workforce development professionals with information on hiring needs and challenges, training and entrepreneurship opportunities, and in-demand and emerging jobs in green industries. The Guide will be completed in late Fall 2010 and will be available both online and in hard copy. Topics for the first four teleconferences included “Why is Green Good for Women,” “Women Entrepreneurship in Green Industries,” “Recruiting and Retaining Women in Green Training and Employment,” and “Green Building and Energy Efficiency.” 3) The Women’s Bureau funded nine regional green jobs pilot projects, which serve as models for engaging and preparing women for high-growth and emerging green jobs over the next decade. The Bureau awarded contracts to organizations to either 1) increase the number of women participants in an already-existing green jobs training program, or 2) add a green jobs training component to an existing pre-apprenticeship training program that prepares women apprenticeships and other nontraditional occupations.