Based in St. Augustine, private company Solar Stik provides solar-generated power to areas and facilities required to have power all the time.
“We’re a solar power company, but not in the typical sense where we go around and install solar panels or anything like that,” said Solar Stik Human Resources Assistant Sunmi (Sun) Jin. “In a nutshell, we’re a hybrid power solutions company and we provide power surety to our customers.”
Jin says the company’s biggest customer is often the U.S. Department of Defense.
“They have systems that are required to have power 24-7 and can’t go offline,” she said. “Sometimes, the electric power grid in the locations where these systems are set out can be unreliable. That’s where we come in…we make sure that by using our products, with the help of hybridizing generators, they can take solar energy and store that. We make sure there’s not an instance where they’re without power.”
Since its founding in 2005, the Solar Stik team in St. Johns County has grown from a small group of passionate individuals to a group of more than 50 team members.
Over the last two years, CareerSource Northeast Florida (CareerSource NEFL) has been able to help them offset the cost of upskilling many of those team members with the Customized Training program.
“My previous supervisor, Hannah Parnofiello, was the human resources (HR) manager who had been working with Roben (Faircloth) and Sonya (Speights) over at CareerSource Northeast Florida for quite some time to use their customized training for our staff,” Jin said. “When Hannah moved on to a new opportunity, that’s when I came to the picture.”
At the time Jin joined the company about two years ago, Solar Stik used the program for employees to attain Configuration Management Industry Standard (CMPIC), a principles and applications standard certification that applies to both commercial and government organizations.
Also, the program allowed the company’s logistics specialist, Nancy Jenkins, to receive her Hazmat Ground Shipper Certification, a U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) certification to ensure full compliance with the 49 CFR Hazardous Materials Regulations, along with Hazmat Air Shipper Certification (IATA) – where she received similar training for the preparation and shipment of hazardous materials and dangerous goods by air transport.
“We use lithium-ion batteries for our power solutions, so I wasn’t qualified to have anything to do with shipping these items when I joined the company a year-and-a-half ago,” Jenkins said. Thanks to the help of CareerSource Northeast Florida and the training, I’m now certified to ship our products in any way necessary – which is very beneficial to me and, of course, to Solar Stik.”
Jin is also a beneficiary of customized training assistance.
After she graduated from the University of Central Florida (UCF) in 2020 with a biomedical sciences degree, she was planning to go to med-school – and had already been accepted at a college – which came around the same time the COVID Pandemic was peaking.
“I hadn’t planned to go into human resources, but I had several personal things happen to me around that time and found myself in Saint Augustine,” Jin said. “One of my good friends that went to UCF with me mentioned that she was working for a really cool company called Solar Stik that had a general opening for an administrative services coordinator and she thought that I would be a really good match for the job. I decided to interview and was hired, and I’m really glad that I did it because I never thought that I would be joining such an incredible company.”
Since then, customized training allowed Jin to obtain her credentials in human resources through SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM – CP) Training. The training is for individuals who may or may not have a formal degree or HR experience performing specialized HR or HR-related duties in their current place of work. The certification allows a person to take on an operational role in the field and perform typical day-to-day HR-related activities.
“I’m personally thankful, and as a company we appreciate the partnership that we have with CareerSource Northeast Florida,” she said. “Knowing that we have their support helps our company stay ahead of the curve when it comes to making sure that we’re investing in the well-being and the upskilling of our workforce.”
In addition to demonstrating to its team members that they want to invest in their future success, Jin says CareerSource NEFL ensures they have additional funding available to provide this training “sooner than later.”
“Knowing that we have the financial support definitely helps in getting around some internal red tape, purchasing requests and providing additional funds that may not be in the budget,” she said. “It softens the blow and it makes this training a lot more accessible for our team members and for the company.
CareerSource NEFL industry manager for Manufacturing, Aviation and Aerospace Roben Faircloth says Solar Stik offers a great example of how companies throughout the region can use the Customized Training Program to help grow the skills of their staff. “This assistance has helped Solar Stik not only upskill their employees through credentialing, but at the same time has improved their competitiveness as they continue their work to bring power solutions to the world,” Faircloth said.
CareerSource NEFL is here to help Employers like you.
Learn more about our Customized Training Programs or contact our Business Services team today.
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