Giving Compass' Take:

• Linda Jacobson explains that nonprofit and other renewable energy organizations are engaging middle and high schoolers in career and technical education by providing employment and internship opportunities.

• How will this type of experience prepare students for the workforce? How can donors help develop these partnerships between businesses and schools?

• Learn about the importance of career and technical education.

A nonprofit with offices in California, Colorado, Washington, D.C., and Nicaragua, Grid Alternatives brings free solar to low-income communities. Homeowners that qualify for the program agree to provide lunch for the crew and ideally, share information about the program with their neighbors.

Through the five-hour Solar Futures program, which receives support from Silicon Valley-based SunPower, the organization exposes high school students to the renewable energy field and provides opportunities to participate in an installation.

“When we let them know there’s an install coming up, it’s always a rush to see who can get their papers in first,” says career and technical education teacher Casey Heiser. “All of them want to do it.”

A Solar Futures “toolkit” with an introduction to renewables and career pathways is also available for elementary and middle schools.

The addition of courses in renewable energy at the high school level demonstrates how CTE programs are evolving to meet the needs of students who want to leave school with job skills as well as the demands of employers in emerging industries.

But Melissa Canney, the director of innovation policy for the Florida-based Foundation for Excellence in Education, says there isn't enough data available on renewable programs in schools, which hinders efforts to match students with future job opportunities.

Read the full article about career and technical education by Linda Jacobson at Education Dive.