All the Way from Australia for Green Classes

L.A. Trade-Tech's sustainable curriculum merits a first-hand visit by that nation's deputy prime minister

Los Angeles Trade-Technical College bills itself as the “the No. 1 community college for green-job training.”

Given the college's extensive green curriculum, which includes renewable energy, hybrid technology and sustainable lighting as well as a green emphasis in culinary arts and fashion, this claim may be justified.

Still, validation from outside the campus is always welcome.

On Monday, Oct. 5, that validation came from down under when Julia Gillard, an Australia deputy prime minister, toured Trade-Tech to see its green curriculum in action.

“The reason I came is because your reputation ranges far and wide,” the highest-ranking female politician in her nation's history told Trade-Tech officials and students.

Gillard was given a tour of the auto shop where she learned the focus is on hybrid electric plug-in cars and three alternative fuels: compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas and biodiesel. Trade-Tech's green courses are fostered by the LACCD's Sustainable Building Program, the voter-approved bond-funded effort to modernize the District's nine colleges.

At Trade-Tech, Gillard watched students install solar panels, experiment with the energy efficiency of various light bulbs and insulate windows.

None of this was foreign to Gillard, who also serves as minister of education and minister of employment and workplace relations back home.

“You could have said, 'Let’s do everything we are doing now and teach green skills in a separate stream on the side,' ” she told her Trade-Tech audience. “Instead, you've decided to embed green skills in every course so that everybody who comes through this college, no matter what they are studying, learns about sustainability.”

Gillard said Australia was taking a similar approach, training its people “to be at the cutting edge of innovation as we deal with the challenge of climate change.”

“I've learned a lot coming around today and talking to people,” she said.

Nancy Pearlman, a member of the LACCD Board of Trustees and longtime environmentalist who founded the Ecology Center of Southern California in 1972, said the exchange of information would go both ways.

“If you google us,” said Dr. Roland “Chip” Chapdelaine, Trade-Tech’s president, “you'll find out we are the premier institution relative to green and sustainability and that didn't just happen. It took a tremendous amount of work…and we are very proud of that.”

Trade-Tech began a major shift toward green curriculum about four and a half years ago, according to Marcy Drummond, the college's vice president workforce and economic development.

Though the sustainability programs have not yielded an abundance of career opportunities, Drummond said, the college anticipates “that, once the economy starts to pick back up, these green jobs will be the very first filled.”

“All the major car manufacturers are coming out with their electric vehicles. The demand for mechanics who understand alternative fuels will be huge within the next three years,” Drummond said.

She said today's Trade-Tech students were investing in the future, “knowing that there may not be a job necessarily tomorrow, but in the long term.”

Trade-Tech has made its own long-term investment in green technology, and it's reaping acknowledgment from halfway around the world.