Green Collar Job Sector Sparks Trends with Online Degrees

As society's concern for the future of the environment increases, so too does the marketability of workers with the skills to incorporate sustainable practices into business, technology, leadership, and other key fields. In response, higher education institutions have begun offering degrees in environmentally-conscious subject areas. Harvard's Graduate School of Design, for one, offers a concentration in sustainable design to address the need for energy-efficient buildings, and the University of Pennsylvania introduced a program allowing students to earn simultaneous graduate degrees in business and environmental studies. Arizona State University has a brand-new School of Sustainability that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Online schools, too, are part of the surge in green degree programs, with schools such as the University of Phoenix and Walden University offering sustainable online school business degrees—the former with a bachelor's degree in Green and Sustainable Enterprise Management and the latter with an MBA in Sustainable Futures. Meanwhile, vocational and community colleges are training technicians to work with green technology, particularly wind turbines. There's little doubt that programs incorporating sustainability will continue to grow in order to meet the demand for workers in green jobs.

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