Workforce Guidance Overview
Workforce Guidance
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The commercial building industry has a diverse field of energy efficiency professionals. To train this workforce, organizations have developed a variety of educational programs. While these programs offer broad access to training, they often differ widely in their content and how they define roles and responsibilities.
To address this challenge, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) facilitated the development of industry-created commercial building workforce guidance. Six career fields were identified as key to achieving the highest levels of energy efficiency in commercial buildings. Workforce guidance was then developed by industry experts for each of these career fields.
The goal of this guidance is to provide a basis for developing and comparing new and existing training programs in the commercial building sector. This will help individuals identify opportunities to enhance their professional skills, enable industry to identify an appropriately skilled workforce, and allow training providers to ensure that they are providing the highest quality product possible. Additionally, the Job/Task Analyses (JTAs) created through this project will be used by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to help meet the requirements of the Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act of 2010 (FBPTA). See below for more information.
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Service Providers: Increase your value to potential clients by identifying relevant training to further enhance your professional skills in the commercial building industry
Building Owners: Increase your confidence in the cost savings of energy efficiency upgrades by ensuring service providers have the technical expertise to maximize the energy performance of your buildings
Property Management Companies: Ensure your staff continues to provide clients with the highest quality service
Policy and Program Administration: Spur the economy and job creation by encouraging workforce development that cultivates the skills required to improve commercial building energy performance
Financial Institutions: Increase investment confidence in energy efficiency projects and long-term building performance by validating the technical capabilities of an organization's workforce.
Unions: Help your members advance their careers by identifying training opportunities in the commercial building energy efficiency industry.
Training Organizations: Ensure your training curriculum is aligned to industry needs and imparts core competencies to provide high quality service to the commercial building energy efficiency industry.
Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act
On December 14, 2010, President Obama signed the Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act of 2010 into law. The FBPTA directs GSA to consult with industry to identify core competencies and the methods necessary to demonstrate each core competency for federal personnel involved in "building operations and maintenance, energy management, safety, and design functions." Further, GSA, in consultation with industry, is charged with developing a comprehensive continuing education program to "ensure the operation of Federal buildings in accordance with industry best practices and standards." Additionally, GSA and DOE, in consultation with industry and other Federal agencies, are charged with developing a curriculum "relating to facility management and the operation of high-performance buildings." Contracted personnel involved in the above Federal facilities management tasks will also be required to receive training and to demonstrate the identified core competencies in a manner approved by the GSA Administrator.
Working with DOE, GSA is in the final stages of identifying core competencies by "cross walking" existing government, industry, professional, and academic facility management training programs. The results of the six DOE/NREL facilitated JTAs will be used to help form the foundation of GSA's national program development.