CGCC Renewable Energy Technology and The Dalles (Portland, Eugene: home, school)

[Elated Tech]

Hello,

I looking into the Renewable Energy Technology program at the Columbia Gorge Community College in The Dalles. I am curious to talk to someone currently or has taken the program and get a feel for the school and city. How tough is the program? What is job placement like? What is the cost of living? How competative is the field of turbine technicians?

Thanks in advance,

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Why is this in the Portland forum?

[Elated Tech]

City-data has two selections for Oregon- Portland and Eugene. Since Portland has a fair amount of wind turbine businesses in the area and is closer to The Dalles than Eugene, it seemed to be a better choice for my query. The question is not only related to the program, but also the city of The Dalles.

If you can be of assistance, please feel free to post a reply.

[EnricoV]

Or you can post it to the Oregon section.

[StealthRabbit]

I PM'd you, as you may notice you will probably not get much help here...

Good school, good career path, (If you are mechanical, agile, meticulous, safety conscious, healthy, and can do HS algebra AND really want to work and don't mind a little danger to keep you alert). These turbines are gonna take A LOT of maintenance, and it will be VERY expensive. There will be nearly 1,000 of them in the bi-state region, unless the greenies get really busy shutting them down (which is happening as we sleep).
100% placement (AFAIK)
average age in program is over 30
Wages $80k-$100k + OT
Challenge for program to keep students through graduation, as they see $$ and want to get out in the field. (It would be wise to do both... school and applicable job, thus company pays for school + you end up with a job and advance faster if they see you've stuck with the degree program). I did that in a technical career in my 20's... it paid MUCH better than my engineering jobs (no OT), but you are always treated like a grunt as a worker bee. Just take the ridicule all the way to the bank
BUT it was very hard to be a scum bag apprentice for 5 yrs... and I often was tempted to take the 'short cut' to earnings. Wise counsel kept me humble and swallowing bitter apprentice wages and belittlement. (That would not work well with the 'entitlement' generation...). A lot of my master teachers had crawled out of iron curtain countries on their bellies, under nightfall and risk of death, so I didn't feel so abused.

NICE people in The Dalles and beyond
CoL reasonable, especially in Morrow, Tygh Valley, and Goldendale, / Bickleton, WA
The Dalles has had some housing pressure from Google in the high end stuff, as well as 'spill-over' from Hood River (Too expensive now)
The Dalles Chronicle
Goldendale Sentinel

Also get busy looking for jobs USAjobs.com with Army Corp of Engineers and Bonneville Power... There are a lot of folks at retirement age. I know 'worker bees' there who pack home over $100k / yr + OT. AND get GOOD benefits.

Too bad you can't get into nuclear energy, but you would need to live in a little more 'cutting edge' country than the US to find steady work. I have several friends in that industry too + solar, geothermal, and algae and jatropha based bio-fuels.

[energytech]

Elated Tech

Would you please share what info you have found about the Renewable Energy Programs. I too and doing a career change and would like share info with you.

Scott