5 Keys to Success in Education for Green Jobs

Think about the best learning experience of your life. Maybe it was learning how to do your job, whether you’re a carpenter, an architect, or a lawyer. Perhaps it was building a business. (That requires an insane amount of study and learning; I can tell you from personal experience.) Or maybe it was a life lesson, like learning how to be married.

Some of you reading this may have decided that getting your college degree or learning the material in a particular class was your best learning experience, but if so, I’ll wager it wasn’t so much from what happened in the classroom as out of it. In my 24 years as a student in formal education, I had some good teachers, but my best learning always happened outside the classroom.

Whatever the subject of your best learning experience was, you may have realized afterward that it wasn’t like the learning experiences that happen in most classrooms. To clarify, I see five keys to really successful learning, which, if you look back, you may also see as keys to your best learning experience:

Key #1: Motivation

Without being motivated to learn, you’ll have a rough time getting your brain going. One of my best learning experiences was building a green home, and I was totally into it. I was building my dream house! People who sign up for green jobs training classes are usually pretty motivated, too, because they’re taking time away from their work and often spending their own money.  

Key #2: Total Involvement

When I was building that house, I was totally involved. I had to be. I’d never built anything bigger than a bookcase, and there I was acting as the general contractor for a 3000 square foot house. I lived it. I breathed it. I’ll bet your best learning experience involved a similar commitment.

The good thing about training classes for green jobs, like home energy rater classes, is that most of them have you go to the training provider’s facility and put everything else on hold during the course. Where many training classes fall down, however, is assuming that your mere presence in the classroom implies total involvement.

Key #3: Peer Learning

When I built the house, I hired a carpenter and two framers to help. I also spent a lot of time talking to the guys at the pro desk at Home Depot. When I subbed out jobs, like drywall and siding, I watched and asked lots of questions. I learned from the guys around me. In school, I would study and do homework with classmates. Who were the peers who aided your best learning experience?

In the home energy rater classes offered by Energy Vanguard, we facilitate a lot of peer learning. The students won’t learn the software by watching us create rating files. They’ll learn the software through group activities targeted at specific learning objectives. Each activity will build on the ones before it and lead to the next until by the end of the course, each student will have a comprehensive working knowledge of the rating software.

An important key to peer learning is cooperation. Students help each other learn and are motivated to do so. The traditional classroom, with each student working alone mostly and being put on the spot to answer questions in front of their peers, fosters more competition than cooperation. Not all competition is bad. Friendly competition among groups, as during learning games, is a good thing and leads to more peer learning.

Key #4: Learning Style

Each person has a different learning style. Some people must move their bodies to learn (somatic). Some learn best by listening and talking (auditory). Others get the most by visual learning exercises (visual). A final group does best with intellectual activities – problem solving and reasoning (intellectual).

Guess which of those four learning styles most classrooms use (yes, even green jobs training classes). Intellectual. Most education programs were designed by people who live almost entirely in their heads. In fact, our whole education system really is set up to ensure that the intellectual learners among us will rise to the top. (For more on that, I’ll post Ken Robinson’s TED talk in another article in this blog tomorrow.)

The truth is that we all use varying degrees of each learning style, but each of us has a dominant one. Thinking back on your best learning experience will probably clue you in to what yours is. Since not everyone is an intellectual learner, our classes shouldn’t cater to only that learning style. The best classes will involve all four types. 

Key #5: Construction of Knowledge

Knowledge is something that has to be constructed by the learner. It can’t simply be handed over from one person to another. I took a short home building class before I embarked on my big adventure in 2001, but that was just the first step in a long journey. When I got out and starting drawing house plans, choosing methods, talking with contractors, buying materials, and actually building the house, I was putting everything together in my mind. In addition to constructing a home, I was constructing my knowledge about the home building process. There’s no way that a teacher, no matter how good they are, can do the learning for you and just pass it on to you.

If you’re looking for some type of green jobs training, think about these 5 keys to learning. Ask your prospective training providers how they structure their classes. Ask them about their education philosophy and experience. This is a big investment, so make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck. 

Energy Vanguard is a HERS training provider and will be a BPI Affiliate soon. Our first class is in August of this year. If you’re looking to become a home energy rater, building analyst, or home energy auditor, I hope you’ll consider us for your training needs. For more about my education ideas, see the article I wrote on home energy rater training last month.