Illinois revamps clean energy jobs training for a shifting economy

Illinois has spent the last few years training hundreds of people for clean energy jobs. Now, it’s upgrading its keystone program to better respond to new workforce realities.

In 2023, Illinois rolled out about a dozen state-funded hubs that paid individuals to learn basic job-hunting skills and clean energy trades, with priority given to those from marginalized communities or areas impacted by fossil-fuel pollution or fossil-fuel job losses.

The initiative prepared participants for a range of roles, from manufacturing EV components to auditing buildings for energy efficiency. An especially heavy focus was put on training solar installers as state and federal incentives bolstered Illinois’ rapidly growing solar industry.

State law requires updates to the curriculum every three years, and in August, Illinois unveiled a new version that stakeholders hope will be more responsive to shifting economic and political winds. The idea is to ensure that the training for clean energy jobs can be easily transferred to other sectors, such as housing development and the data center industry.

Advocates and experts involved with the curriculum revamp say it comes at an opportune time, as the Trump administration’s anti-renewable energy policies threaten to impact job markets.

“Workers who are interested in working with clean energy and learning about these new technologies … don’t need to limit themselves to only working in clean energy,” said Peter Fugiel, senior research specialist at the University of Illinois’ Climate Jobs Institute, which was created by state law to study the economic and workforce impacts of clean energy programs. ​“Learning a broader trade or set of technologies might give them more opportunities to work and apply their skills even when there are policy shifts.”

The new curriculum is largely informed by research from Fugiel and his colleagues that is cataloged in a clean jobs inventory released in August. That report urged the state to consider adopting a ​“career cluster” approach that trains workers in broader subject areas, rather than focusing on individual occupations, like solar installation, as the previous curriculum did.

The state took that advice, and the new framework offers five career clusters for students to choose from: construction; manufacturing; utilities; professional services; and installation, maintenance, and repair. It also puts a heavier emphasis on apprenticeships and developing ​“transferable competencies,” like understanding logistics and supply chains in manufacturing.

For example, the construction cluster could prepare workers not only to build wind or solar farms, Fugiel explained, but also to construct data centers, install geothermal heating and cooling systems, and build new schools.

The new curriculum is ​“more generalized, less specialized, so it can be more resilient when big swings happen in the market,” said Mary Kuhn, policy program specialist for the Chicago Jobs Council, a nonprofit that supports workforce development programs in the state.

Trump administration policies could drive such swings. Take Illinois’ solar sector, for example. It has seen rapid and steady employment growth since 2020, according to federal data cited in the clean jobs inventory.

While some of that growth is due to robust state support for solar, it is also thanks to federal clean energy tax credits created by the Biden administration. But last year, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress abruptly tightened deadlines for those incentives, while tariffs and stringent rules around foreign supply chains are also expected to drive up the price of solar.

Although solar job postings in Illinois remained strong in 2025, according to the inventory’s analysis of data from global analytics firm Lightcast, those changes could eventually dampen construction and thus employment opportunities in the state. 

Regarding clean energy jobs more broadly, ​“it’s hard to say what will happen within the next few years as markets hopefully stabilize,” said Linda Larsen, who is associate director of research for the Climate Jobs Institute and collaborated on Illinois’ new curriculum. ​“I would expect to see more vulnerability in sectors that really rely on federal subsidies,” such as electric vehicles.

The clean jobs inventory found that occupations ​“with the brightest outlook” in Illinois in coming years include construction laborers, power line installers, electricians, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning technicians.

Such jobs will likely grow in part because of data center construction and the expansion of building electrification and energy efficiency, the Climate Jobs Institute researchers said in interviews. Kuhn noted the state’s mandates for utilities to invest in getting buildings off fossil fuels and helping them use less energy. Meanwhile, spiking power prices and energy demand from data centers may further encourage utilities and residents to invest in efficiency, since it can lower energy bills and reduce strain on the grid.

Larsen said that the energy storage sector may ramp up hiring in years to come as well, given the state passed a law last fall that creates incentives for the technology. Batteries have also been mostly spared from the Trump administration’s crusade against clean energy, though they could be affected by supply chain rules and tariffs.

Fugiel is hopeful Illinois’ new approach will set workers up for success regardless of which opportunities end up being most abundant.

“I think of it like a garden. A good gardener wouldn’t want to plant just one type of crop,” he said. ​“We can have our fast-growing annual crops such as solar — or in the past, wind — and also these larger more established sectors that are like the hardy perennials that every year create thousands of jobs, like energy efficiency, the manufacturing of components, HVAC installation.”