University of Houston System debuts new program to develop clean energy workforce

future of energy

The program will allow students to learn at their own pace, and is supported seven days a week by tutorial and technical staff, and offers flexible payment options with a low initial registration fee. Photo by Brett Sayles/Pexels

University of Houston-Downtown announced a new Wind Turbine Technician Certificate Program.

UHD’s goal with the new program is to address the global need for workers skilled in servicing, diagnosing, repairing and installing wind turbines and other associated equipment.

Some courses can be purchased as students work through them.The total cost is $1,750 for the entire program.

The course will be delivered in partnership with George Brown College in Toronto. George Brown College is a leader in distance learning, and one program highlight will be its 3D interactive wind turbine simulator. The wind turbine simulator will have key features like real-time visualization, interactive operation, pre-built lab projects, and Pitch and Yaw Ladder Logic applications, which shows how Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are used to provide automatic control of wind turbines.

“The programs we develop at George Brown College feature robust technical simulation software so we can reach different students, like those looking to diversify their skills and can’t attend full time because of family or work commitments,” Colin Simpson, dean of continuous learning, says in a news release. “Additionally, our partnership with University of Houston-Downtown allows us to extend our reach to help train the U.S. clean energy workforce.”

According to Global Wind Energy Council’s Global Wind Report 2023, over half a million new wind technicians will be needed by 2026 to service the expected capacity increases, as wind generation is expected to more than double by 2030. Texas produces 26 percent of all U.S. wind-sourced electricity.

“Wind energy is one of the fastest-growing energy sources in the world, and as the largest wind producer in the United States, there is a growing need for skilled technicians in Texas,” UHD President Loren J. Blanchard adds. “By partnering with George Brown College, we’re able to leverage a unique online program to develop a skilled workforce for the wind energy sector in the state and beyond.”

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

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Houston — home to the Texas Medical Center — has made the cut for top life science metros. Photo via Getty Images

Houston recognized for its workforce among top life science cities

we're no. 13

Of the top 25 United States metros ranked as the best for life science, Houston came in at lucky No. 13.

CommercialCafe issued a report this month ranking the top 25 U.S. cities for life science, factoring in volume of life science patents, number of life science establishments, size of workforce, educational institutions, office market, and more.

Houston stood out on the report for a few metrics. It might not be surprising, as Houston is home to the world's largest medical center, but the city boasts the 10th largest workforce with 5,100 workers employed in industry related occupations, the report found. Additionally, the city ranked:

No. 8 for life science education — more than 860,000 area residents aged 25 years or older hold a bachelor’s degree in an industry related field.
No. 9 for life science establishments — which has increased 23 percent since 2018 to a total of nearly 3,300.
No. 9 for life science square footage added — with roughly 840,000 square feet of new life sciences projects currently in development

As positive as the report finds Houston's life science market, the ranking represents a decrease in ranking compared to 2022 where Houston scored a spot in the top 10. In fact, Houston can't even claim the top spot in the Lone Star State. No Texas cities made the top 10, but the Dallas area secured the No. 11 ranking. Dallas was also ranked highly for its talent pool.

Meanwhile in central Texas, Austin claimed the No. 22 spot. The full ranking is below.

www.commercialcafe.com

Conveniently, CBRE, which also ranks the top life science markets every year, agrees with CommercialCafe's ranking of Houston. The 2023 report placed Houston at No. 13, which is exactly where the Bayou City ranked in 2022. However, according to CBRE, Houston ranks ahead of Dallas and Austin, which both still claimed rankings in the top 25.

The opportunities to reach and empower underserved populations to participate in the health care workforce are limitless. Photo via Getty Images

Op-Ed: Removing barriers is critical for the future of Houston's health care workforce

guest column

Houston houses one of the most renowned medical communities in the world. However, Texas' current health care workforce shortage has severely impacted the city, with large swaths of the Gulf Coast Region deemed medically underserved. Thousands of Houstonians are impacted year after year due to the lack of access to life-saving medical care.

The obvious solution to this problem is to form a pipeline of health care workers by equipping students with the necessary skills and education to fill this gap. Sadly, many individuals who lack opportunity yet aspire to pursue a career in the health care industry face barriers related to childcare, transportation, mentorship gaps and life's unexpected circumstances.

Dwyer Workforce Development (DWD), a national health care training nonprofit, has recently expanded its footprint to Texas and has joined Houston Community College (HCC), one of the largest community colleges in the country, to provide life-changing support and create a pipeline of new health care workers, many who come from underserved areas.

Last year, our organizations launched the Dwyer Scholar Apprenticeship program, which is actively enrolling to combat the health care shortage and bring opportunities to those lacking. Working together, we are supporting apprentices each year to earn their Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) certificates, where students can choose a Phlebotomy or EKG specialization, helping our city meet the demand for one of the most essential and in-demand jobs in health care each year. Our program will help address Texas' loss of 36 percent of its CNAs over the past decade while providing gateways for highly motivated students—Dwyer Scholars—to thrive in long-term health care careers.

We know financial barriers prevent many potential health care workers from obtaining the certifications needed to enter the workforce. That's why we are bringing our innovative programs together, enabling Scholars to earn while they learn and opening doors for those who do not have the financial luxury of completing their training in a traditional educational atmosphere.

After enrollment, DWD continues to provide case management and additional financial support for pressures like housing, childcare, and transportation so Scholars don't have to put their work before their education. Scholars are placed with employers during the program, where they complete their apprenticeships and begin full-time employment following graduation.

The Texas Workforce Commission has identified apprenticeship programs as a key area for expansion to meet employer demand for skilled workers. Through our partnership, we are doing just that – and the model is proven. More than 85 percent of DWD Scholars in Maryland, where the program was established, have earned their certificates and are now employed or on track to begin their careers.

Our work doesn't end here. Over the next decade, Texas will face a shortage of 57,000 skilled nurses. Texas must continue to expand awareness and access to key workforce training programs to improve outcomes for diverse needs. Our organizations are working to vastly expand our reach, making the unattainable attainable and helping to improve the lives and health of our community.

No one's past or present should dictate their future. Everyone deserves access to health care, the ability to further their education and the chance to set and achieve life goals. The opportunities to reach and empower underserved populations to participate in the health care workforce are limitless.

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Barb Clapp is CEO of Dwyer Workforce Development, a nonprofit that supports individuals who aspire to pursue a career in the health care industry. Christina Robinson is the executive director for work-based learning and industry partnerships at Houston Community College.

Texas has landed in the No. 8 spot for the best states for Black entrepreneurs. Photo by Christina Morillo/Pexels

Report: Texas remains a top state for Black entrepreneurs

by the numbers

The Lone Star State has again ranked among the top states for Black entrepreneurs, but Texas didn't rank as highly as it did in 2022.

According to Merchant Maverick’s latest annual report on the state of Black businesses, Texas has landed in the No. 8 spot for the best states for Black entrepreneurs. While the state maintains a position in the top 10, Texas has dropped from its No. 3 spot last year.

Guided by metrics including Black-owned businesses per million residents, percentage of the state’s workforce employed by Black-owned businesses, average annual payroll of Black-owned businesses, average annual income of Black business owners, regional price parity, a cost of living indicator, unemployment rate, and Top state income tax bracket rates, the report also noted the following key takeaways:

The Lone Star State is:

No. 9 for highest average annual income.
Home to 360 Black-owned businesses per capita.
No. 15 highest in the nation for percentage of the workforce working for Black businesses.

Black businesses continue to see success all over the state.

The largest Black tech conference in the country, the 2023 AfroTech Conference, recently returned to Austin for the second straight year at the Austin Convention Center. The five-day conference united over 300 companies – including Amazon, Meta, and Google – to expand the representation of Black Americans in STEM fields.

In 2022, a ranking by Black employees at Apartment List put Houston at No. 4 among the best cities for Black professionals. The Apartment List employees judged 82 cities in four categories: Business environment for Black professionals. Houston ranks third. Black community and representation. Houston ranks fourth. Economic opportunities for Black professionals. Houston ranks seventh. Housing opportunities for Black professionals. Houston ranks No. 20.

Growth also was reflected post-pandemic for Black-owned startups in Houston according to study by economists at Rice University, Boston University, Columbia University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The study found that from 2019 to 2020, the startup rate rose 32 percent in four largely Black areas of Houston: Kashmere Gardens, Missouri City, South Acres, and Sunnyside. The statewide startup rate during that period was 10 just at percent.

Texas recently landed on another Merchant Maverick report, also dropping a few spots in Merchant Maverick’s annual ranking of the top 10 states for women-led startups. The Lone Star State landed at No. 5 for women-led startups in 2023, down from No. 2 in 2022. Last year, Texas ranked second, up from its No. 6 showing in 2021.

Houston's San Jacinto College is launching a biotechnology program in early 2024 to be housed in the Center for Biotechnology in Generation Park. Rendering courtesy of McCord

Houston-area college shares more details on new biotechnology program, center

coming soon

Houston's San Jacinto College will roll out a new biotechnology program in early 2024 as it gets closer to its goal of launching the Center for Biotechnology in Generation Park.

In partnership with the Ireland-based National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, the licensed training curriculum will offer regional biopharmaceutical training at the college's South Campus starting in January.

Initially, the 90-hour hybrid training program will provide opportunities for participants to gain experience with "all aspects of biomanufacturing, specialized instrumentation and equipment training, and advanced techniques," according to a statement. Students will earn an onboarding certificate that will help them enter the field.

The college then plans to open the Center for Biotechnology, developed by McCord Development Inc., at its Generation Park Campus in the first quarter of 2025. The state-of-the-art facility is slated to allow for more hands-on training within simulated environments, and will allow students to earn associate of applied science degrees in biomanufacturing technology, as well as credentials for those already in the workforce.

“The biomanufacturing industry is seeing substantial growth in the Greater-Houston area,” Christopher Wild, executive director for the San Jacinto College Center for Biotechnology, says in a statement. “The College’s partnership to offer NIBRT’s premier, industry-leading training right here in the Houston-area represents a firm commitment to bolstering the biomanufacturing workforce pipeline which will help position the region for continued growth.”

The center will also offer programs that are customizable to industry partners' needs, according to a statement, and will provide cost-effective training for new hires. It will be the only NIBRT-licensed training in the Southwest and Southeast region.

“The NIBRT team have been very impressed by San Jacinto’s excellent track record in developing workforce programmes for the Greater Houston Region across a broad range of industrial sectors," Darrin Morrissey, CEO of NIBRT, says in a statement. We are very much looking forward to working with the San Jacinto team to deliver world class biopharma training programs to their students."

The new center is part of Generation Park, a 4,300-acre master-planned development in Northeast Houston. In late 2022, San Jac and McCord, which is developing Generation Park, shared that they had signed a memorandum of understanding with the NIBRT to launch the program and center.

At the time, San Jacinto College was slated to be the institute’s sixth global partner and second U.S. partner.

Over the summer, McCord also revealed plans for its 45-acre biomanufacturing campus at Generation Park.

When's the last time you went to a networking event? Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Houston is the 8th best metro for newcomers to make connections, study says

putting your network to work

A big city might seem impersonal, but don't be fooled. There's more going on behind the scenes than what a resident might be seeing through their local lens, especially in Houston. A recent LinkedIn study has revealed the best U.S. metros for newcomers to make connections quickly, and Houston's sprawling metro earned a spot in the top 10.

LinkedIn's economic graph data team analyzed over 3 million users from the networking social media platform who relocated to a new metropolitan area in 2021. For the purpose of this study, "connection rates" were determined based on a newly relocated user's new LinkedIn connections in each metro compared to the overall U.S. average. It also excluded student migrations to new cities to keep the analysis focused on the workforce.

Houston ranked No. 8, with a newcomer's connection rate being 8.2 times higher than the national average.

Making industry-specific connections with people in a new city can lead to beneficial outcomes, such as participating in more volunteer work, engaging with fellow entrepreneurs, or joining a fun club with likeminded hobbyists. (Of course, we like to think the best way to network in a place like H-town is to follow the No. 1 publication that stays up to date on local happenings, CultureMap.)

Other interesting findings mentioned in the study is that Gen Z workers (born in 1997 and after) had the fastest connection rates in new metro areas. When analyzing by gender, men made 30.5 percent more connections on average then women did after relocating. However, the fastest overall growth despite age and gender demographics occurs relatively quickly after a person relocated.

"The fastest growth in LinkedIn members’ overall pace for adding connections – including ones outside their new metros – occurred in their first two months after migrating," the report said. "By the third month, this connection rate stabilized at about half their initial level."

The No. 1 city for newly-relocated folks looking to expand their professional horizons is, unsurprisingly, New York City. The rate of LinkedIn users making new connections with others in the Big Apple is 11.1 times higher than the national average, the report found.

Ranking two spots below Houston in Texas is Dallas-Fort Worth (No. 10). The rate of newcomers making new connections in the Metroplex is only 7.8 times higher than the national average.

LinkedIn's top 10 U.S. metros for networking by newcomers are:

No. 1 – New York City
No. 2 – San Francisco Bay Area
No. 3 – Salt Lake City
No. 4 – Los Angeles
No. 5 – Boston
No. 6 – Chicago
No. 7 – Washington, D.C.
No. 8 – Houston
No. 9 – Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Florida
No. 10 – Dallas-Fort Worth

The full report can be found on linkedin.com.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Texas universities develop innovative open-source platform for cell analysis

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What do labs do when faced with large amounts of imaging data? Powerful cloud computing systems have long been the answer to that question, but a new riposte comes from SPACe.

That’s the name of a new open-source image analysis platform designed by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas A&M University and the University of Houston.

SPACe, or Swift Phenotypic Analysis of Cells, was created to be used on standard computers that even small labs can access, meaning cellular analysis using images produced through cell painting has a lower barrier to entry than ever before.

“The pharmaceutical industry has been accustomed to simplifying complex data into single metrics. This platform allows us to shift away from that approach and instead capture the full diversity of cellular responses, providing richer, more informative data that can reveal new avenues for drug development,” Michael Mancini, professor of molecular and cellular biology and director of the Gulf Coast Consortium Center for Advanced Microscopy and Image Informatics co-located at Baylor College of Medicine and TAMU Institute for Bioscience and Technology.

SPACe is not only accessible because of its less substantial computational needs. Because the platform is open-source, it’s available to anyone who needs it. And it can be used by academic and pharmaceutical researchers alike.

“The platform allows for the identification of non-toxic effects of drugs, such as alterations in cell shape or effects on specific organelles, which are often overlooked by traditional assays that focus largely on cell viability,” says Fabio Stossi, currently a senior scientist with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the lead author who was at Baylor during the development of SPACe.

The platform is a better means than ever of analyzing thousands of individual cells through automated imaging platforms, thereby better capturing the variability of biological processes. Through that, SPACe allows scientists an enhanced understanding of the interactions between drugs and cells, and does it on standard computers, translating to scientists performing large-scale drug screenings with greater ease.

"This tool could be a game-changer in how we understand cellular biology and discover new drugs. By capturing the full complexity of cellular responses, we are opening new doors for drug discovery that go beyond toxicity,” says Stossi.

And the fact that it’s open-source allows scientists to access SPACe for free right now. Researchers interested in using the platform can access it through Github at github.com/dlabate/SPACe. This early version could already make waves in research, but the team also plans to continually improve their product with the help of collaborations with other institutions.

The Ion names new coworking partner for Houston innovation hub

Where to Work

Rice University subsidiary Rice Real Estate Co. has tapped coworking company Industrious as the new operator of the Ion’s 86,000-square-foot coworking space in Midtown. Industrious replaces WeWork-owned Common Desk in that role.

The Ion, owned by Rice Real Estate and located at 4201 Main St., is a 266,000-square-foot office building and innovation hub in the 16-acre Ion District.

Features of the coworking space include private suites and offices, dedicated desks, phone booths and conference rooms. In 2022, Common Desk said it was expanding the space by 28,000 square feet, bringing it to the current size.

“(Industrious’) unparalleled expertise in delivering quality, hospitality-driven workspaces complements our vision of creating a world-class ecosystem where entrepreneurs, corporations, and academia converge to drive innovation forward,” Ken Jett, president of Rice Real Estate, said in a statement.

Natalie Levine, senior manager of real estate at Industrious, says her company will work with Rice Real Estate “to continue to position the Ion as an invaluable contributor to the growth of Houston’s innovation community.”

Dallas-based commercial real estate services company CBRE said Jan. 14 that it had agreed to acquire Industrious in a deal valued at $400 million.

The Ion is Industrious’ second location in Houston. The company’s other local coworking space is at 1301 McKinney St.

Office tenants at the Ion include Occidental Petroleum, Fathom Fund, Activate, Carbon Clean, Microsoft and Chevron Technology Ventures.

Texas ranks among the 5 best states to start a business in 2025

Best for Biz

As one of the largest states in the U.S., it's no surprise Texas is big on business and entrepreneurship. Now the state is earning new praise among WalletHub's 2025 list of "Best & Worst States to Start a Business."

The Lone Star State claimed the No. 4 spot in the report's rankings, proving that Texas is in a much better business shape than it was last year when it earned No. 8 in WalletHub's annual report.

The study compared all 50 states across 25 metrics to determine the best places to start, grow, and find success with a new business. Factors that were considered include the number of startups per capita, job growth rates, financing accessibility measures, labor costs and corporate tax rates.

The three states to outperform Texas in the 2025 report are Florida (No. 1), Georgia (No. 2), and Utah (No. 3). Idaho rounded out the top five.

Across the study's three main categories, Texas performed the best in the "business environment" category, earning No. 1 nationally. This section compares the states based on five-year business survival rates, average business revenues growth and more.

Texas ranked No. 12 in the nationwide comparison of "access to resources" – which covers working age population growth, venture investment amounts per capita and other means – and earned a fair No. 34 in the report's "business costs" ranking.

But Texas can still do better with its business friendliness to reclaim a top-three overall ranking, which the state last earned in 2023 .

WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in the report that it is imperative for potential new business owners to establish their enterprise in a place that can maximize their ability to succeed.

"Around half of all new businesses don’t survive five years, so the idea of becoming a business owner can be daunting, especially with the current high cost of living," Lupo said. "The best states have low corporate tax rates, strong economies, an abundance of reliable workers, easy access to financing and affordable real estate. On top of that, you’ll need to make sure you start in a place with an engaged customer base, if you’re operating locally."

Houston has also proven to be at the top of the destination list for entrepreneurs who are looking for their next venture.

The top 10 best states to start a new business in 2025 are:

No. 1 – Florida
No. 2 – Georgia
No. 3 – Utah
No. 4 – Texas
No. 5 – Idaho
No. 6 – Oklahoma
No. 7 – Nevada
No. 8 – Colorado
No. 9 – Arizona
No. 10 – Kentucky

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, CultureMap.

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