Serving over 8000 students a year from all over the world in SEI's Online Campus, the world's leading professional solar training provider kicks off another year of offering technical and rigorous training in the renewable energy industry.

Paonia, Colorado January 03, 2013

Solar Energy International is responding to the growing training needs for a highly trained technical solar photovoltaic workforce by expanding their online solar training for prerequisite courses leading to hands-on labs and professional certificate program completion.

"We have hundreds of students travel to our world-class Solar Photovoltaic (PV) lab facility in Paonia, Colorado every year. The interest continues to increase every year and we needed to find a way to offer flexible educational opportunities that would allow our students to get their prerequisite course work completed so they could come to the week long hands-on labs in the summer.

The SEI Online Campus has made this training a reality for thousands of people from all over the world while maintaining SEI's rigorous quality standards of teaching and learning." said, Kathy Swartz, Interim Executive Director for Solar Energy International.

The recent report from The Solar Foundation and the third annual National Solar Jobs Census report found that the U.S. solar industry currently employs 119,016 Americans. This figure represents the addition of 13,872 new solar workers and a 13.2 percent employment growth rate over the past 12 months.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the overall economy grew at a rate of 2.3 percent during the same period, signifying that 1 in 230 jobs created nationally over the last year were created in the solar industry.

The report, produced by The Solar Foundation and in partnership with BW Research and Cornell University, was released at the Interstate Renewable Energy Council's Clean Energy Workforce Education Conference in Albany, NY.

Chris Turek, SEI's Director of Online and Student Services said, "Thousands of people are coming to SEI to get training to enter the clean energy workforce. In response to this large influx of interest, we are excited to announce the 2013 Online Solar Training schedule.

This will be the 12th year that SEI has offered online training. We have been offering renewable energy training for over 20 years through in-person workshops and hands-on labs. We were one of the first training providers to offer online training options for those interested in getting training in renewable energy technologies.

On January 14th we will kick off this year's online training schedule with some of the most rigorous solar training in the industry. We invite everyone to join thousands of people from all over the world in SEI's Online Campus."

SEI is offering Solar Photovoltaic online courses that start January 14th and offer sessions all through 2013. New for 2013 is an additional special offer of a free textbook / eBook bundle for all students who take the PV101 Online Course.

*PVOL101: Solar Electric Design and Installation (Grid-Direct)

*PVOL202: Advanced PV System Design and the NEC (Grid-Direct)

*PVOL203: Solar Electric Design (Battery-Based)

*Free Textbook / eBook Bundle for all PVOL101 Students ($129 Value)!

More information about the Solar Electric Textbook / eBook Bundle

*Free Online Course - RE100: Introduction to Renewable Energy - start anytime!

Register for RE100: Introduction to Renewable Energy

*More Online Solar Training throughout 2013

All online courses lead to the completion of a training path in SEI's Solar Professionals Certificate Program. Chris Turek went on to say, "The SEI Solar Professionals Certificate Program goes beyond a "certification test prep" format of training and takes participants to a higher level of educational experience to truly prepare them for the solar industry and a career."

When asked about the quality of graduate from SEI's Solar Professionals Certificate Program, Blake Jones, SEI Alumni and CEO of Namaste Solar said, "SEI is, of course, very well respected by Namaste Solar and the rest of the Solar Industry. This is taken into account when reviewing employment applicants' resumes and where they received their training. Establishment of the SEI Solar Professionals Certificate Program will help formalize proof of a rigorous training program completion and make it easier to distinguish training certificate holders from other employment applicants."