Environmental Technology Job Training

The environmental technology industry is vast and growing. It spans air quality, water and wastewater, emergency response, energy conservation, safety and health, natural resources, and waste management, including hazardous materials. It embraces hundreds of job titles, including dozens of technical jobs that require specific certifications but not a college degree. With the long-term decline of manufacturing and construction employment, living-wage occupations for non-college-degreed workers are hard to find. Environmental Technology is one industry that offers many such occupations. Because it is driven by law and regulation, it is highly resistant to the fluctuations of the business cycle. And because it deals with domestic issues of air, water, land and energy, the jobs cannot be outsourced to other countries.

The JFYNetWorks Environmental Technology Training is a gateway into this industry. The program is funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. It is one of the original EPA job training programs initiated under the Brownfields program in 1997. It is the longest-running EPA job training program in Massachusetts. Training partners include the Suffolk University Chemistry Department, the New England Consortium at UMass Lowell, and the Institute for Environmental Education.