Pre-apprenticeship program offered for clean energy jobs in Maine [Video]

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Maine has numerous clean energy goals to meet in the coming decades, but some people in the field said Maine needs more workers to give the state a shot at meeting those goals.

ReVision Energy in partnership with Portland Adult Education and Portland Arts and Technology High School created a pre-apprenticeship program—Renewable Energy Careers: Introduction to Solar Installation and Heat Pumps Program—to streamline multilingual adults into the renewable energy sector.

“I think I can mix my background, my knowledge with what they are teaching here,” Pierre Dende, a participant, said.

Dende is an electronic engineer and studied engineering outside of the United States. He joins nine other participants in the program, all recently having come to the U.S. He said one of his biggest challenges is improving his English.

“It’s …