BOSTON — Even though the job market has cooled down this past year, there are still a lot of opportunities out there.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the fastest growing occupation in the coming decade is expected to be wind turbine technician.
Students at Franklin-Cummings Tech in Boston are training for these jobs using virtual reality.
Darwin Almonte, one of the instructors, explained “They are going through the daily activities of what an off-wind technician would do.”
Students get the sensation of being on top of a 525-foot turbine that is 27 miles offshore.
Two students told Boston 25 News it was an exciting sensation while another said it was scary.
The second fastest-growing occupation is solar panel installer.
Clean energy jobs are growing for two reasons, according to Basra Mewafy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor for Renewable Energy at Franklin-Cummings.
First is because the US government is now investing a lot of money in this area.
Secondly, many students in this generation are environmentally conscious and have an awareness of how important it is to find and cultivate sources of clean energy.
Mewafy says graduates of the two-year program are getting snatched up by employers and get paid pretty well. “At least starting from $60,000 to $70,000.”
The third fastest-growing job field according to the federal governor is nurse practitioner.
A nurse practitioner is a nurse with a master’s degree who acquires additional competencies that allow them to diagnose, prescribe treatment, prescribe medicine, and coordinate care.
Cynthia Bashaw, DNP, is the chair of the family nurse practitioner program at Endicott College in Beverly. She says, “This past year we’ve had a huge pool of applicants for the program.”
Bashaw isn’t surprised the field has exploded in recent years.
“Nurse practitioners have kind of come along to fill a gap. If you’ve tried to make an appointment with your primary care physician or a primary care provider, it’s hard.”
Bashaw says Endicott, as well as other schools, offer a mid-career option for people to get into nursing.
In less than a year and a half, someone holding another bachelor’s degree could finish an accelerated nursing program. After that, they could then decide whether or not to continue on to become an NP.
“People that work in primary care in the Boston area probably start around $120,000-$130,000 a year. That can go up if people work in a specialty”, added Bashaw.
‘The other area that’s really exploding is technology,” said Mary Cavanaugh, SVP for Career Management at Keystone Partners. “AI has changed the game.”
She says areas, like cybersecurity and data analysis, are particularly hot.
In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics named data scientists as the 4th hottest field followed by information security at #5.
She says a career change into a hot industry is possible.
“It’s just being nimble and willing to learn, especially for those who’ve been in the market a bit,” said Cavanaugh. “Because that is something that when we work with clients, we take a look at that in terms of what can you get in your tool kit in terms of skills, what certificates can you get.”
She believes the Massachusetts workforce should benefit from these national trends because the local economy has so many strengths in these areas.
It might not be as expensive to get re-trained as someone might think.
As of this year, many Massachusetts residents qualify for free tuition at the state’s community colleges.
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