Every April, the United States celebrates registered apprenticeship. This year’s theme, America at Work: Making America Skilled Again through Registered Apprenticeship, puts a spotlight on one question the clean energy industry can’t ignore: how do we get enough trained, credentialed workers into the field to meet demand? Solar Energy International has an answer.

A New On-Ramp to the Trades

This year, SEI launched the Pre-Apprenticeship Plus Pathway, a program designed to connect entry level solar education and training directly to a licensed electrician apprenticeship pathway. The reality is that the technology of solar photovoltaic technology is a spark of interest for many people who may want to enter into the electrical trades.

The promise of renewable energy and the science of the photovoltaic effect has launched thousands of careers into the broader electrical trades over the last few decades. SEI has been the starting point for many of these careers.  With the changing landscape of electrical licensure as it relates to the work in the solar industry across many jurisdictions across the country, SEI solar training is expanding this onramp effort into these apprenticeships. This effort is doing so by formalizing partnerships with some of the leading apprenticeship programs in the country. 

In Colorado and Wyoming, SEI’s solar training has established articulation agreements for transfer of training hours into registered apprenticeship programs, with both IECRM (Independent Electrical Contractors Rocky Mountain) and CAM Solar now signed on as partners. That means students who complete qualifying SEI coursework are not starting from zero when they enter the electrical trades, they’re bringing verified skills that the apprenticeship recognizes and rewards.

But Colorado and Wyoming are just the starting point. SEI is actively building apprenticeship partnerships nationwide, with plans to expand the SEI Pre-Apprenticeship Plus Pathway significantly in the coming year.

Why It Matters Right Now

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that registered apprenticeship completers earn an average of $80,000 in their first year after finishing the program, and with no student loan debt. In the solar and electrical trades, that number is climbing. The clean energy transition is creating jobs faster than the workforce can fill them.

Pre-apprenticeship programs are designed to close that gap. They prepare candidates, particularly those entering the trades for the first time, to succeed in a registered apprenticeship by building the foundational skills, safety knowledge, and experience employers expect before day one.

SEI’s program takes that model further, giving students a head start.

What the Program Includes

SEI’s Pre-Apprenticeship Plus Pathway includes:

• Online coursework covering solar fundamentals, electrical safety, and photovoltaic system design
• Classroom hours and credit that can qualify toward partnering apprenticeship programs
• A pathway aligned with NABCEP certification, the solar industry’s gold standard for professional certification

Students who complete the pathway can enter the electrical apprenticeship with a stronger foundation and a shorter road to journeyman status.

A Movement Worth Being Part Of

National Apprenticeship Week is a signal: employers, workforce agencies, community colleges, and state governments are investing in apprenticeship as an effective model for training workers and filling the skilled trades pipeline.

For over 30 years SEI has worked with career seekers, career changers, and industry veterans across all 50 states and more than 100 countries. The Pre-Apprenticeship Plus Pathway is the next chapter in that work, a program purpose-built for the growing clean energy workforce and for anyone ready to build a career that pays and lasts.

If you’re looking for a way into the solar and electrical trades, or if you’re an employer looking for better-prepared candidates, now is the time to learn more. Explore SEI’s Pre-Apprenticeship Plus Pathway →