Vineyard Offshore sponsors site to attract students to careers in wind energy

A new online education tool from Long Island’s Institute for Workforce Advancement hopes to introduce high school and middle school students to careers in the region’s nascent offshore wind industry.

The website, OSWLongIsland.org, is sponsored by Vineyard Offshore, a developer of offshore wind sites in the Northeast, and is designed to be a first step in an online and in-school career guidance program. The site is also geared toward adults looking to familiarize themselves with opportunities in the industry, which is expected to create thousands of jobs on Long Island in the coming decades.

“We need a platform to start reaching down into the schools now to start cultivating that generation of workers for offshore wind for the next 30 and 40 years,” said Phil Rugile, executive director of the Institute for Workforce Advancement, a Melville nonprofit that introduces students to careers in advanced manufacturing.

Rugile said the interactive site guides users through a series of questions — "What do you like to do, do you like to work with your hands, do you think you’d like to work in the office?” — that direct them to specific job titles and career descriptions.

The Institute plans to work with Island schools to provide informational seminars to students on careers in renewable energy, using the new website as a reference point. 

Boston-based Vineyard is one of three development groups awarded state approval last month to create offshore wind projects off the coast of Long Island. The Vineyard project, called Excelsior Wind, is planned to be a 1,314-megawatt project roughly 24 miles south of Fire Island in an area known as the New York Bight.

Vineyard is expected to complete construction of Vineyard Wind, its first offshore project, off the coast of Massachusetts, next year.

“We’ve realized how important it is to capture community members at every age and every stage,” said Andrea Bonilla, external affairs manager for Vineyard Offshore. “Because this is a new industry, it’s very important to create awareness and pathways to the many economic opportunities that will be available.”

The rollout of the web tool comes at a time when offshore wind developers have faced recent setbacks in dealing with the state.

Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed legislation that would have fast-tracked a wind-energy cable through Long Beach. That same month the state Public Service Commission rejected a request from developers of a previously awarded offshore wind project to increase prices they would be paid for energy to reflect increased project costs.