Expert Sessions | Workforce Development with Bryant Black

Earlier this year, we hosted a series of expert learning sessions to help shape a long-term strategy for Work on Climate—one that’s grounded in the realities of an ever-evolving political, social, and economic landscape. These sessions brought together practitioners who have driven real impact by building climate-focused ecosystems, communities, and workforces across a range of sectors and scales.

Bryant Black is an expert in regional workforce development and public-private partnerships. This interview with Bryant will focus on his work on hydrogen workforce development via the Greater Houston Partnership.

There was a real appetite to figure out how to do it differently.

How did you know that it was time to do something about the hydrogen workforce?

Yeah, well, I think it was time because there was signaling of federal investment in the hydrogen space.

I would say traditionally the energy industry is reactive as opposed to proactive when it comes to identifying what skill sets and jobs are going to be necessary to coalesce around where talent is going for the needs of the industry. And so, in parallel to all the work being done to develop a hydrogen strategy for the Inflation Reduction Act and everything that came along with being designated in the Houston region as a hydrogen hub, we needed to look into what it would take to invest in communities and our education partners to make sure that the jobs coming to this industry would also benefit the people in the region.

It’s not something we’ve ever been proactive about. When we spoke with employers, educators, and community partners, there was a real appetite to figure out how to do it differently. That was the signal: if we’re going to grow this somewhat nascent industry in the energy capital of the world, we better make sure we’re doing it in a way that doesn’t create more disparity between the haves and the have-nots.

What were some design choices you made because it was the hydrogen workforce in Houston, where different things would’ve been appropriate in another context?

Because it was hydrogen, we needed to make sure the technical side was at the table. Operating in the energy industry means factoring in traditional roles: upstream, downstream, midstream, but over time we realized that many companies were already doing some form of hydrogen work, just not at the scale we’re talking about here.

That scale requires a proactive strategy around growing jobs for an industry expecting large-scale capital investment across a geography bigger than Rhode Island. We need to figure out what that’s going to take and how it’s going to look. That’s essentially what we’ve been doing.

And even though these are hydrogen roles, they’re also jobs that already exist, not only in this region but across the country. So we asked: what can we take from what we’ve already learned elsewhere and apply that to this hydrogen effort for our employer partners and the education institutions developing hydrogen-specific curricula?

How were you able to secure commitments from different partners with varying priorities and points of view?

It took some time. The people that were usually at the table were executives or people in corporate social responsibility, which is a good place to start, but not enough to move the needle. These are large, complex organizations, and you have to navigate them to get to the right decision-maker or stakeholder.

When you’re talking about changing hiring and recruitment behaviors, you’re essentially asking companies to recruit from talent pools they’ve traditionally ignored, felt burned by, or had a blind spot toward. There’s a difference between having “corporate social responsibility” in a title and actually being responsible in your corporate practices.

Eventually, if you talk to enough people, you find the hiring managers, the boots-on-the-ground folks making real decisions. In the end, our goal was to get employers to partner with organizations they hadn’t previously considered part of their core hiring strategy.

There’s a difference between having ‘corporate social responsibility’ in a title and actually being responsible in your corporate practices.

What convinced companies to change their hiring practices?

In this industry, you convince them when capital project owners mandate it, the federal government mandates it, or when they see the behavior modeled by their competitors, collaborators, customers, and suppliers.

You probably have a few companies in mind that move the needle in the energy space and we had those people at the table. Once they’re at the table, others start seeing the opportunity.

Many of these companies have capital investments in the very neighborhoods where we want to make a difference. What we learned is these companies have done this kind of community investment all over the world, but they’ve never been required to do it in their own backyards.

So realizing that they’ve already done this, just not domestically, was a real “aha” moment. It’s never been part of their investment decisions.

How was this initiative funded? What kinds of capital were needed, and how did you assemble the group of funders?

We had some pro bono work from large consultancies that helped along the way. The Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law were a big part of it. They dangled the carrot of financial investment, which helped bring our employer partners to the table.

The structure of those bills made labor practices, apprenticeships, and community involvement a part of financial decision-making. That made companies more open to changing behavior and investing in new approaches. Right now, companies are beginning to reassess their financial commitments to this effort.

How has the initiative evolved—organizationally, in leadership, or in how its impact is felt?

We started by identifying the ten hydrogen jobs with the most stable demand, wage uplift potential for disadvantaged communities, and attainability. These weren’t just lateral moves, like welder-to-welder across industries. They were career transformations—opportunities to change the outlook for individuals and their families.

Then we got more focused, building curriculum and programming around two to three core roles: electricians, clerks, and compliance officers. Maybe we got a little too narrow for a while, but over time we expanded again, especially with the election coming. We needed to mitigate risk and ensure employers saw this as relevant no matter what happens politically.

So while these are hydrogen jobs, they’re also energy jobs driving the Houston and Gulf Coast economy. We’re focused on ten to twelve roles with stable demand that uplift communities.

We’re also reassessing how we talk about it. If I walk into a community where the average annual household income is $27,000, I’m not going to start with “Hello, disadvantaged communities.” We need to be intentional about language and how we’re talking about it. It’s very good feedback we’ve gotten from both our community members and our partners already working with them.

---

Related Content

Read the latest blogs with our other Experts.

Watch more interviews from our Expert Learning series