California Masons Team with Cal EPIC to Power Green Careers

Thanks to California Masons and Cal EPIC, Today's Students are Getting Plugged In

A NEW PROGRAM IS INTRODUCING STUDENTS TO CAREERS IN THE BURGEONING GREEN TRADES.

By Ian A. Stewart

Above: High school students get an up-close look at an electric vehicle battery carriage at Cal EPIC’s Sacramento headquarters and workshop.

The newest high school classroom in Sacramento gets 320 horsepower from a quad-motor setup powered by a 100-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion phosphate battery pack. It’s 20 feet long and has the Masons of California logo printed on its side.

This spring, students from Sacramento City Unified School District got their first look at a new mobile classroom: a customized Rivian RCV 700 electric van full of battery chargers, safety gear, and components that’s being driven from school to school to introduce young people to careers in electric-vehicle battery manufacturing, engineering, and repair. The rolling classroom is part of a first-of-its-kind new partnership between the California Masonic Foundation, Sacramento City Unified School District, and the California Energy, Power, and Innovation Collaborative (Cal EPIC). Through the deal, students at some of the district’s most under-resourced schools will have the opportunity to take a 10-week training class in precision manufacturing and green-energy technologies like EV maintenance. The aim is to offer a pathway to well-paid jobs in growing fields that don’t require a college degree.

The $471,000 grant is part of the Foundation’s Working Tools program, which has also funded similar career and technical–education courses in San Diego. “The goal is to close the perception gap that many kids have about careers in the trades,” says Doug Ismail, president of the California Masonic Foundation. “We want to get kids excited about these kinds of jobs and help them see a future for themselves in those fields.”

Electric-vehicle battery tech is a fast-growing field. By 2030, it’s estimated that jobs in battery technology will more than quadruple to 80,000 in California. Meanwhile, solar jobs will grow from 105,000 to 270,000 by the end of the decade. “This program allows Sacramento to lead in developing clean and safe solutions to California’s transportation challenges while keeping up with the increasing demand for this specialized workforce,” says Orville Thomas, CEO of Cal EPIC.

Says Ismail, “For too long, we’ve talked about young people going into the trades as a failure. Instead, we want to show that it can be a real win.”