A couple hours drive from Denver, the town of Eagle has all the stunning views and big mountains that Coloradans love. It also has an industrial zone tucked away on a frontage road off of I-70. That's where you'll find the headquarters for R & H Mechanical, a building systems contractor.

Josh McCarrel stood in front of a classroom there, lecturing students on the basics of electricity.

“AC stands for… Anybody?” McCarrel prompted his students. “Alternating current,” they responded in unison.

“Alternating current,” McCarrel confirmed. “DC stands for…?” “Direct current,” the students replied.

 McCarrel was laying the groundwork for those students to become HVAC technicians and work with heat pump technology — super energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, powered by electricity.

This class is among the first of its kind anywhere in Colorado's High Country. It's part of a massive push by Colorado Mountain College, the local higher ed system, to expand skilled trades workforce training.

Adapting to the reality of climate change requires innovation, new technologies, and also fresh skillsets that workers need to master. More and more, rural communities are part of that shift. Now, higher education and industry are partnering to train the rural climate workforce of the future. 

“Here in the mountains, it's been challenging to find new talent,” said Tim Braun, vice president of operations for R & H. “We have to grow our own.”

Braun said his company is so hungry for skilled workers, they partnered with Colorado Mountain College to build this program. The graduates earn nationally recognized credentials. According to Braun, there’s a big demand for these workers, who can help transition from gas-burning heating and cooling systems to heat pumps.

“There's been a big gap in our workforce development that we need to pick up,” he said.  “More talent to be able to help with that transition in the future.”

There are waitlists to get into these skilled trades classes, and the college wants to more than double capacity.

Andrea Anderson is enrolled in the class. She works as a quotes administrator for R & H, preparing bids for contracts with customers; she’s taking this class to get better at her job.

“When I started, I really knew nothing about heating and air conditioning,” Andersen said. “Over the years, I've learned a lot, but now I just want to learn some more.”

Andersen and her classmates are also part of the state's plan to combat climate change, which includes climate workforce development.

“In almost every single energy and climate action that our state has, the skilled trades are super, super essential to making sure that work gets done,” said Megan Christensen,  the climate workforce development manager at the Colorado Energy Office.

They're super essential in rural areas, in particular. State data show that that's where the worker shortage is most severe. It’s also where exposure to climate change is greatest.

“It's an issue that is impacting all parts of life and their economies,” said Elizabeth Harbaugh, vice president at Lyra Colorado, a Northwest Colorado nonprofit in the education and climate space. “We work with ranchers up in Northwest Colorado who can speak very openly about the lack of water and how that's changed their outputs over the past 10 years.”

These communities revolve around agriculture and outdoor recreation. Natural resources threatened by climate warming power rural economies and define the region's identity. Harbaugh said we need to start preparing young people here to enter the climate workforce now.

“When we look at resilience in rural regions, we need to be thinking what does it look like to be socially sustainable, economically sustainable, and environmentally sustainable,” she said. 

Expanded workforce training in the well-paying skilled trades checks all those boxes at once.