PROVIDENCE — In an aged brick warehouse in the former manufacturing center of Olneyville, workers on Friday were building the modular classrooms and workstations that will soon prepare low-skilled Rhode Islanders to enter the emerging green industries and potentially help lift the state’s foundering economy.

The Providence Plan, a local nonprofit focused on socioeconomic advancement, will launch a jobs-training program next month geared at getting low-income city residents trained in the energy-efficient construction and renewable-power industries.

Thanks to a $3.7-million grant from the federal stimulus plan, the Providence Plan will be able to expand Building Futures, the agency’s program helping urban residents prepare to enter apprenticeships in carpentry, electrical work, welding, plumbing and other construction trades.

Governor Carcieri, Sen. Jack Reed, Rep. James Langevin, Mayor David N. Cicilline and other elected officials will be at an event on Monday at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers headquarters in Cranston to announce the program’s start.

The new Building Futures initiative will be housed in the 10,000-square-foot space in the brick warehouse at 30 Manton Ave. that workers were preparing on Friday.

There, the organization will expose low-income city residents to green building trades through the organization’s pre-apprenticeship program. It will also offer classes to help current union apprentices and journeymen advance their skills and gain the certifications needed to qualify for jobs in the green industries.

In all, the two-year commitment of federal funding will allow Building Futures to serve 100 unemployed urban residents (ages 18 to 35) through its pre-apprenticeship program and offer training and certification programs for 650 registered apprentices and 850 journeymen.

The program is one of two in New England and just 24 nationally to receive federal funding under the U.S. Department of Labor’s “Energy Training Partnership Fund,” a $100-million stimulus program.

Rhode Island’s building and construction industries suffered heavy losses following the crash of the housing market, but the demand for skilled construction and building workers is expected to rebound as the public and private sectors make long-term investments in green industries and older generations of laborers approach retirement, according to Andrew Cortes, executive director of Building Futures.

Still, Rhode Island lacks a sufficiently trained work force to meet demand, and Cortes says there is a real threat that the state will lose out to others in the competition for attracting potential new businesses or see new companies come to Rhode Island, only to bring in more qualified out-of-state workers to fill vacancies.

“We’re under-producing apprenticeships in all the construction fields by 30 percent,” he said. “Unless we prepare Rhode Islanders for the building trades now, our residents won’t be able to take advantage of the jobs that become available in their own state.”

To develop the new Building Futures program, Cortes says his organization worked closely with the state Association of General Contractors and other building trade groups to determine what training is most needed.

It also worked with Deepwater Wind, a New Jersey company that wants to build an offshore wind farm off Block Island and hire up to 800 new workers to build it. “This program is informed by demand,” he said. “This is what employers say they need.”

pmarcelo@projo.com