NREL Celebrates National Weatherization Day
Oct. 29, 2020
NREL Supports Weatherization Professionals with Online Trainings and Resources
Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL 28597
Oct. 30 is National Weatherization Day, and NREL is excited to show its support for weatherization and home energy professionals.
The Guidelines for Home Energy Professionals team's support to WAP includes maintaining technical specifications and tools, developing approaches to strengthen workforce skills and qualifications, collaborating with training providers, and fostering continuous improvement throughout the WAP. For over a decade, NREL's efforts have supported consistent and efficient implementation of the program, including multiple important weatherization resources.
Weatherization Assistance Program Administrative Trainings
NREL is proud to share a new series of online trainings for weatherization administrative professionals within the WAP network. The online training platform provides 30 modules that focus on various elements of administration of weatherization programs, including client interaction, production forecasting, and subcontracting.
The modules are interactive, allowing weatherization program staff to practice tasks typically encountered on the job. The newest training highlights COVID-19 workplace safety, ensuring weatherization professionals are staying safe while performing important home energy services. The workplace safety training is available to users in both English and Spanish. Learn more about how the trainings were developed and access the training in previous blog posts.
Instructional Design Workshops
NREL is providing support to develop and offer an online course in instructional system design (ISD) for the WAP training network. The 6-week, instructor-led, online course will be held twice in 2021, with sessions beginning in mid-March and again in early summer. The course objective is to provide professional development to curriculum developers and instructors within the WAP network. Topics covered will include assessing training needs, developing accurate learning objectives, conducting evaluations, and more.
Standard Work Specifications
In 2013, the Energy Department and NREL developed the Standard Work Specifications (SWS) web-based resource with collaboration from public, private, and federal sector subject matter experts to define the quality of work for home energy upgrades installed on single-family, multifamily, and manufactured housing. The SWS provides guidance for weatherization professionals on the various weatherization standards, and it serves as an industry guide to ensure work performed during home energy upgrades is effective, durable, and safe. In fall 2020, a Spanish translation of the website will also be available.
Long's Peak Energy Conservation Weatherization Program inspects and insulates an attic.
Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL 28759
Retrofit Installer Technician Badges Toolkit
The Installer Badges Toolkit for home retrofits consists of 25 "badges" that define a task or measures an installer could perform on a home. The badges encourage greater flexibility in the training of installers by allowing them to focus on only those measures that are installed in their program or profession.
Since its creation in 2019, roughly 200 users have downloaded the toolkit.
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NREL would like to thank the U.S. Department of Energy for its continued support in the development and improvement of resources for the weatherization industry.
Contact
For questions related to NREL's WAP support, contact weatherization.support@nrel.gov.
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