CHAMPAIGN – More than 1,000 area residents could get trained for "green jobs" as the result of a $375,000 grant to Parkland College.

Some of the money will be used to prepare unemployed and dislocated workers for careers as weatherization installers and technicians.

The rest will be used to train workers with construction, building or contracting experience to do wind, solar and geothermal retrofitting of homes and businesses.

The money comes from $6 million in job-training money Illinois got from the federal government for careers related to energy efficiency and renewable resources.

That statewide grant was divided seven ways, with $440,000 going to Danville Area Community College to develop a wind-energy program, as reported earlier this month.

The remainder went to job-training initiatives in Chicago, Rockford, Peoria, Springfield and Bloomington.

Training for the Champaign initiative – which covers the 12-county Parkland district – will start May 1. Day and evening classes will be offered at the Illinois workNet Center, 1307 N. Mattis Ave., C.

Area residents interested in the training should contact Minor Jackson, Parkland's executive director of workplace development, 353-2119, to see if they're eligible.

Jackson said the grant is expected to help train 540 workers a year over the next two years. Of those 540, two-thirds will be unemployed workers, while the other third will be workers upgrading their skills.

The Atkins Group, Fox Development, One Main Development, Petry-Kuhne Co. and Architectural Expressions are listed as partners in the project.

"We'll receive direct referrals for their workers," Jackson said, adding the workers will get "short-term intensive training" on wind, solar and geothermal retrofitting.

Training will be given through five-, seven-, 10- and 14-day workshops, with 75 percent of the time spent in the classroom and the remainder in the field, Jackson said.

The training will lead to analyst-level certification in residential distributed wind and solar retrofitting.

Occupations targeted for the training include: architects, building maintenance and repair people, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, engineers, building inspectors, construction managers and heating/ventilating/air-conditioning technicians.

The unemployed workers will be trained for careers as weatherization installers and technicians, wind-turbine technicians, HVAC technicians and home and building inspectors.

Jackson said the training could also prepare them for apprenticeships in the building trades.

The unemployed-worker group will first take part in a 40-hour workshop that includes math, reading, language and occupational-skill assessments. They'll also attend a workshop that covers interview skills, cover letters and resumes.

Finally, they'll receive intensive training that leads to certification in energy audit, analyst and systems competencies.

Will jobs be available for them once they complete the training?

"That's the $64,000 question," Jackson said. "It's dependent on employers – architects, building contractors, developers."

He noted that wind-farm projects are under way or under discussion in Champaign, Vermilion, Ford and McLean counties.

Other partners in the job-training program include the Champaign County Economic Development Corp., the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission, the Community Collaboration for Economic Development, the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce, the Champaign County Black Chamber of Commerce and the local chapter of the NAACP.