East Haven Student Among Grads Of 'Energize CT Green STEP Program'

NEW BRITAIN, CT — With their sights set on a career in the energy efficiency and green building trade industries, 50 Connecticut high school students recently graduated from the Green STEP Summer Program.

One of them was Shreeji Patel of East Haven.

The two-week paid-to-train development program is offered by Energize Connecticut℠ Sponsors Eversource and Avangrid Inc. subsidiaries United Illuminating, Southern Connecticut Gas and Connecticut Natural Gas.

During the workforce development program’s awards ceremony, held July 25 at Eversource, students were presented with their program completion certificates and had an opportunity to participate in a career expo and meet with area businesses on available internships and career opportunities.

In addition to the program certificates, 23 students received their technical certifications needed for the green building and energy efficiency industries, and nine students were awarded Certificates of Excellence in their Education Track.

Taught by certified industry experts, participating students had the option of selecting three educational tracks – Weatherization and Existing Building Upgrades; Decarbonization & Efficient Building Systems; and Green Building & New Construction. Work-ready training courses such as heat pumps and geothermal, resume and interview prep and OSHA 10 were also available to all students.

Green STEP has provided industry training to the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System for over 10 years. The program expanded its curriculum last year to include all high school students across Connecticut by offering Virtual After School Certificate Training as well as the summer program, which is designed to educate and prepare students for careers in the green building and energy efficiency trade industries. To date, the program has awarded 525 students with their certifications.

For more information about Green STEP, including how students can register for upcoming workshops and trainings, please visit EnergizeCT.com.

About Energize Connecticut

Energize Connecticut is an initiative dedicated to empowering Connecticut to make smart energy choices, now and in the future. We provide Connecticut consumers, businesses, and communities the resources and information they need to make it easy to save energy and build a clean energy future for everyone in the state. It is an initiative of the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund, the Connecticut Green Bank, the State, and your local electric and gas utilities. The initiative has funding support from a charge on customer energy bills.