Jacob Travis was working as a headhunter for the solar energy industry when he attended the
CanSIA conference last December. "The were 2,500 people there, and I had a lot of the major solar companies asking if I could find them people for two jobs: Design engineers... and project managers." When he went looking as a recruiter, Travis found a sever shortage of qualified people in Ontario.
As Ontario's world-leading
feed-in tariff system reaches implementation, we'll need a lot of qualified people to build and install sustainable energy infrastructure -- a shortage identified by
CanSIA in a three-year market survey. That's why Travis set up the
Ontario Solar Academy to fill the skills gap. Working from a hotel, the Celevland-and-Toronto based Travis set up a website and recruited an instructor. The first month's class in February saw its 28 spots filled in two weeks. A class of 25 in March sold out too, and Travis says the April class's 25 slots are almost full.
Demand is so high -- and only likely to grow -- that the Solar Academy has secured a lease on a facility on Vaughan to be a permanent home as the company expands in May.
So far, Ontario Solar Academy employs three people in Toronto on a contract basis. Travis expects to see substantial hiring as the new facility opens, and excitedly rhymes off a list of upcoming initiatives, including an apprenticeship program launching this month, an alumni network and a new affiliated company, Ontario Solar Solutions, of which he says, "Our business is to support other solar businesses." And right now, it looks like the number of solar businesses will only continue to grow.
Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Jacob Travis, Director, Ontario Solar Academy
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