New Insider Deals are here, and you’re going to love them!Texas State Technical College wind energy technology instructor James Chung, center, helps Steven Vasquez, left, and Shayne Howard, right, during a class in Sweetwater on March 5. Wind energy employers from the area work closely with TSTC in shaping the curricula, so recruiters know students will develop the skills they need.
But qualified candidates like Vasquez are hard to come by. TSTC is the only school in the state that offers a wind technician program developed in close collaboration with wind energy firms. Colleges in other parts of the state told The Texas Tribune they haven’t seen enough interest from students in their areas to start their own wind-focused training programs.
He told the students he worked his way up to manage a multibillion-dollar wind project, and they could too. And the shortage of wind technicians threatens the steady operations of turbines at wind farms and the safety of those already in the workforce, said Kevin Schroeder with the renewable energy company Invenergy.
Texas State Technical College wind energy technology instructor James Chung gives a lecture in Sweetwater. TSTC is the only school in the state that offers a wind technician program that was developed in close collaboration with wind energy firms.On a recent day in a Texas State Technical College classroom in Sweetwater, Vasquez tinkered around with the wires of a prototype circuit board. He and his peers were trying to get them in the right place so the LED would light up.
Nearly every student in TSTC’s wind energy program moved to Sweetwater from other parts of the state and now lives in the dorms. The school has room for more students, but moving away from home elsewhere in Texas to get an associate's degree is not an option for everyone. Steven Vasquez is in his second semester at the Texas State Technical College campus in Sweetwater, learning how to become a wind turbine technician. The wind industry gave Vasquez and other Sterling City High School graduates $4,500 in college scholarships for every year they were in the school district. “That town makes a little bit too much money from all the wind farms in the area,” Vasquez laughed.
Western Texas was part of a wave of community colleges across the country that tried to develop a wind-focused program but shut down because of low enrollment, said Jeremy Stefek, a workforce researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Schools then pivoted to creating “industrial maintenance” programs, which cross-trained students in skills related to both wind and solar energy.