January 23, 2010 Getting TEC-SMART By DREW KERR dkerr@poststar.com
MALTA -- When Olya Prevo graduated from college in 2006, she began looking for a job that would help her change the world for the better.
After a year of searching, she hadn't found one.
Instead, with her degree in international relations, Prevo was working at an area restaurant, deliberating whether she should broaden her search to New York or Washington, D.C., attend law school or join the Peace Corps.
Then she discovered Hudson Valley Community College's solar installation program, a three-semester commitment that would give her the electrical experience she needed to make her way into the alternative energy arena.
Prevo enrolled, she said, because the program seemed the ideal way to couple her desire to help protect the planet with a wish to stay in the area and not become overburdened with student loans.
In a little more than a year, and for just over $6,000 in tuition, she had another degree to add to her resume. This one paid off almost immediately.
Prevo was hired by a local solar energy company, Alteris Renewables, a year and a half ago.
Prevo, 28, is a Ukrainian immigrant who lives in Mechanicville. She works as a sales associate for Alteris, helping area businesses and homeowners "determine if solar is something that will work for them."
"Would I have gotten this job without the degree? I don't think so," Prevo said. "If I wanted to work in renewable energy, I had to get that hands-on training."
Stories like Prevo's could become increasingly common around the Capital Region as the community college trains students for jobs in fields that, officials say, are among the most promising in the area: clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing.
On Monday, the Troy-based community college will open a new satellite building at Saratoga Technology and Energy Park in Malta that will cater to students studying alternative fuels, renewable energy and semiconductor fabrication.
The building is known as TEC-SMART - the Training and Education Center for Semiconductor Manufacturing and Alternative and Renewable Technologies - and was built using $13 million in state money.
More than 250 students have enrolled in courses that will be held at the building this spring, and officials say more will be drawn to the program as the need climbs for workers trained in clean energy and semiconductor production.
"When you look at the big picture, across the country, these are the industries that are growing," said Joe Sarubbi, TEC-SMART's executive director, during a visit to the site earlier this week.
That growth is particularly pronounced in this area, he and other supporters of the effort said.
The 43,000-square-foot TEC-SMART building, powered in part by solar panels, is separated by little more than a row of trees from the computer chip factory being built by GlobalFoundries in the adjacent Luther Forest Technology Park.
The chip plant is expected to employ more than 1,400 people when finished in 2012, and school officials hope students trained at TEC-SMART will have a good chance of working there once they graduate.
School officials have established connections with the computer chip maker - a partnership accentuated by President Obama during his trip to HVCC last year - and have included an area designed to mimic the ultra-clean conditions at the chip factory in the new building.
HVCC President Drew Matonak said the school felt building such a partnership was critical to helping students find meaningful, well-paying work in the area.
About 80 percent of the school's students stay in the Capital Region, so adapting to the area's changing work force needs is vital, he said.
"We pride ourselves on meeting not just the current needs, but the projected needs of employers in our area," Matonak said. "We've seen a big push towards technology and alternative energy, so if we're going to be successful in those areas we really need to develop the people to support that."
The school's commitment comes as good news to Mike Stengle, who runs Alteris Renewables' Albany office.
The company has hired nearly 18 people since beginning in 2004, but Stengle said it has been difficult to find applicants with all of the knowledge needed to join the firm and begin work immediately.
Training employees can take up to six months, but graduates from a program such as HVCC's could be out in the field in a matter of weeks, he said.
"Right now, we have to spend more time training people than we do installing systems," Stengle said. "The whole industry will grow once that changes."
Sarubbi said that the needs of the market, coupled with lingering unemployment, will drive growth at TEC-SMART.
The school hopes to offer more courses and opportunities to retrain existing workers, he said.
"Over the years, technical jobs have gotten kind of a black eye," Sarubbi said. "But I think now people are recognizing there is a lot of opportunity here, and that there is money to be had."
