Endorsements

MREA Professional Endorsements:
Growing the Midwest Solar Workforce

Recognizing Professionals New to the Solar Industry
Why Pursue the MREA PV Site Assessment Endorsement?

When hiring new employees, solar companies place high value on candidates with related education and work experience.  To help new professionals gain experience and set themselves apart from other job seekers, the MREA has developed an endorsement program to recognize students that achieve minimum competency and work experience requirements. The endorsement is meant to be placed on a resume as a reference.  The MREA will maintain records of all endorsed professionals and if an employer is interested, they can contact us to verify the achievement.

What is the PV Site Assessment Endorsement?

To achieve the Site Assessment Endorsement, students must:

• Have earned the MREA PV Site Assessment Certificate (retired), or
• Have completed PV 101, PV 201, passed the PV Site Assessment Exam, and have a minimum of 100 hours of related work experience verified by an employer

Download the Employer Verification Letter – Once complete, email to Jenny Heinzen at jennyh@midwestrenew.org.

Work Based Learning Opportunities
To help student gain work experience, the MREA manages paid and unpaid internship programs with a network of solar contractors in the Midwest. To review internships, see the MREA Internships page at midwestrenew.org/internships. To view job opportunities, see the MREA Career Board at midwestrenew.org/jobs.

To read more about work-based learning opportunities in solar, see the Solar Foundation’s Toolkit at americansolarworkforce.org.

Transitioning the MREA Site Assessment Certificate Program
On October 31^st, 2018, the MREA officially retired our Site Assessment Certificate Program and Recognized Training Provider Program. You can read the full justification and transition plan in the Program Termination Announcement.

To make the transition to the new Endorsement program, the MREA is managing the following steps:

1. We will maintain the list of MREA PV Site Assessment Certificate holders  and honor the PV Site Assessment Certificate process, including the current exam and tech-mentored practice site assessment reports, for anyone that has completed the first report as of 10/31/18 and wishes to pursue the Certificate.
2. For all current and future students, we will follow the requirements of the PV Site Assessment Endorsement.
3. We will maintain a list of PV Site Assessment Endorsements, available for verification upon request by current and potential employers.
4. We will also soon be developing Endorsements in PV Design & Sales and PV Installation, including paid and unpaid internship opportunities with a network of solar industry employers.