KOAM TV 7 Joplin and Pittsburg News Weather SportsFormer mechanic looking to find a "green-collar job"

Former mechanic looking to find a "green-collar job"

NEOSHO, MO. - With layoffs and stores closing, working adults are looking for alternative job options.  One Neosho mechanic found his alternative in energy resources.

Jeff Glenn is a husband, father, and had a career as a mechanic all his life until he was layed off earlier this year.

"In the back of your mind it's 'I need to go back to school because that's where the jobs are,'" he says.

Jeff enrolled in Crowder College, he's learning skills that will ready him for a job in alternative energy, a growing field.

He remembers what it's like to be in working in a job without room for advancement.

"I wanted to have a position where you could always move up.  To me it seems like if you can't better yourself and do something better, you are just stagnating - you are just there working."

The decision to attend Crowder College for a two year degree was not an easy one.

"It's scary," he says.  "I mean, we are both scared because you put in two years for schooling - I mean we may have to borrow money to go to school, we are going to use up our savings which is what we are using now, and there's not much of it you don't know what's going to be available at the end of the two years.  So it's a gamble."

The schools alternative energy program is new to the school.

Crowder's offered "green" programs since the early 1980's but says their enrollment in these courses is growing.

Monty Pugh-Towe, a professer at Crowder College, says green-collar jobs will not disappear, comparing the wind turbine to an automobile becoming a hot popular commodity.

"You can compare it to a car," he says.  "You buy a brand new car and you drive it for a while.  Well, then you need to go get it checked up, it needs a maintenance, it needs a tuneup it needs it's filters changed.  Same thing with a turbine."

Monty says the majority of his students are in their thirties and realize the importance of getting an education.

"They are wonderful for the jobs mainly because they are more focused, they are very interested in the subject and they want the job."

Jeff regrets his decision about not going to college in the past but knows he can change that now.

"Looking at it now, I wish I would have finished college," Jeff says.  "That should have been my main priority - just doing whatever I could to finish college."

Jeff is still looking for a part time job while he goes to school.

By ELIZABETH MATTHEWS