Empowering the Nashville, TN, Workforce
From solar energy to AI, technology continues to change workforce needs, and educational institutions and organizations in the Nashville Region are doing their part to help residents adapt to an evolving labor landscape.
“It’s all about being on the cutting edge without the edge cutting you,” says Robbie Melton, interim provost for academic affairs and vice president for technology and innovation at Tennessee State University.
TSU SMART Center: Preparing for the Digital Workforce
Melton oversees TSU’s SMART Center. The center is a state-of-the-art center established to promote digital literacies, inspire smart connected innovations and provide education technology skills across the spectrum of education and all disciplines in preparation for the digital workforce.
“We research, investigate and try out all of these smart tools, devices, equipment and even toys for the value of teaching, learning and the workforce,” Melton says. “It’s for the transformation of teaching and learning and the empowerment of our community.”
Current SMART Center initiatives include the following:
- AI training for faculty, students, staff and local employers
- The academic eSports lab provides a pathway from gaming to academic programs
- Open Educational Resources for alumni reskilling
- Noncredit continuing education courses
“AI is our new workforce,” Melton says. “One of Tennessee State’s goals is to prepare our students, faculty and staff in the ethical, legal and appropriate use of AI. We get our hands on AI tools before they hit the public. We bring in stakeholders from all over to evaluate how new tools will transform the workplace.”
The TSU SMART Center works to further education and outreach through partnerships. Some of the partners include tech companies like Comcast, Oracle, T-Mobile and Apple.
“We have these tech giants coming to us so that we can actually not only talk about but demonstrate the transformation in teaching,” Melton says. “Tennessee State is the premier institution when it comes to artificial intelligence and the transformation for teaching and learning.”
Goodwill’s Clean Energy Training Program: Powering Up Careers
To prepare workers for clean energy jobs, Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, in partnership with Goodwill International, Nashville Electric Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Accenture, GRID Alternatives and General Motors, launched a training program focused on solar and storage installation.
The program consists of hands-on technical training full time for four weeks. Participants learn the fundamentals of solar and storage installation and maintenance. They also have have the opportunity to meet with potential employers. All while earning a weekly stipend.
“Individuals who come into the program will get a set of skills that give them an opportunity to enter the workforce in solar panel installation,” says Karl Wendt, director of the Goodwill Career & Technical Academy.
Those skills include solar site evaluation, OSHA-10 certification, installation basics training-120 and electrical energy fundamentals, among others.
A Student Success Story: Michael’s Journey into Solar Energy
Michael Nedreski found out about the program while searching for jobs online following a period of unemployment while he tended to his mental health.
“I wanted to be in an environment that was going to be healthy,” Nedreski says. “The solar training program piqued my interest. After I applied, the Goodwill recruiter reached out and explained what the training program entailed and that I would receive a weekly stipend. It seemed a little too good to be true to me.”
But it got even better.
“I just kept finding more and more success in the program,” Nedreski says. “The more we learned, the more it was clicking. I started feeling more confident, not just in my abilities to do a task, but in myself as a whole.”
Nedreski finished the program at the end of March 2024. In April, he started a career with LightWave Solar as a direct current technician.
“At the very end of the program on graduation day, Goodwill invited companies they had partnered with on the program to come do interviews with all the students,” Nedreski says. “Mine with LightWave went very well. They’ve given me a very clear outline as to what a path of growth looks like within the company. The program made that transition so smooth, because everything that I’m seeing in the field, I’ve already seen and covered in the classroom.”
The last 2024 program ran in September, and future opportunities will be posted on giveit2goodwill.org/solar.
“We’re looking at what the industry and the Midstate need,” Wendt says. “We want to match our graduate rate with their hire rate ideally so that all of our graduates find work.”
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