Mobile job training centers to teach skills
Welding, 3D printing and other tech to be taught on job sites
Prairie State College in ChicagoHeights is preparing to roll out a pair of innovative mobile training centers designed to provideworkers with high-tech skills. The $1.6million investment will help retain crucial manufacturing jobs in the south suburbs, college officials said.
“Our focus is to keep employers here,” Prairie State President TerriWinfree said. “We listened to what employers said they needed.”
Creating and keeping goodpaying manufacturing jobs helps area residents in many ways. A stronger industrial tax base eases the property tax burden on homeowners and helps fund schools.
Prairie State’s newmobile training centers are housed in two, 53-foot trailers that will be pulled by semi tractor trucks. One containswelding stations, while the other unit is equipped with 3Dprinters, robotics and computer numerical control, or CNC, machines.
“We’re the first in the area to have these,” said Craig Schmidt, vice president for community and economic development at Prairie State. “These classrooms and hands-on training centers can be brought to a company site.”
That means workers won’ t be inconvenienced by having to commute to a community college campus or other location for training, Schmidt said.
Also, larger companies that operate three shifts around the clock will be able to provide equal training opportunities to employees, he said.
To fully appreciate howthe mobile training centers will benefit the Southland, it helps to gain an understanding of how high-tech manufacturing has advanced in recent years.
In the old days, high school students might have been trained howto manually use a mill or lathe in shop class. Today, computer-controlled machines create parts out of metal or other materials with far greater speed and precision.
CNC machines are equipped with drills and other tools that use digital program instructions to create products. Materials
can be rotated onmultiple axes so the tools can do theirwork more easily. Machining technology is constantly advancing, so there is a need to provide workers with continuous training.
“It’s all focused on advancedmanufacturing,” Schmidt said of the need for training. “The top priority is to upskill current employees.”
The mobile training centers will primarily benefit adultworkers and their employers, but they can also be used to teach skills to high school students, interns and apprentices pursuing careers in manufacturing.
“Our focus is on keeping employers here, butwe also need to create a pipeline of newworkers,” Winfree said. Hundreds of specialty manufacturing shops operate in the south suburbs, according to Reggie Greenwood, executive director of the Chicago Southland Economic Development Corporation.
“There are a lot of sophisticated manufacturing companies in the region,” Greenwood said. “These companies believe it’s essential to continually train theirworkers.”
Greenwood’s organization is one of several groups that helped establish the Calumet Manufacturing Industry Sector Partnership. The partnership is a network of more than 30 south suburban manufacturing businesses, ranging fromsmall, family-owned companies to large, multinational firms.
There are more than 600 manufacturing companies in the region who are eligible to join the network, whichwas founded in 2017, Greenwood said.
Prairie State’s priority will be to use the mobile training centers to help employers within the community college district, which covers an area roughly south of 183rd Street and east ofHarlem Avenue to the Indiana border and Kankakee County line to the south.
But Prairie State has reciprocal agreements with other community colleges, Winfree said, and it is likely the centers may roll up to manufacturing centers throughout the south suburbs.
“Wewill bring the training to them,” she said.
The centers are still being equippedwith technology and are expected to be ready to begin operations in a fewweeks. The public is invited to an unveiling planned for 5 p.m. Nov. 21 at the college’s Transportation, Warehousing and Logistics Building at 191 S. Halsted St., ChicagoHeights.
Depending on need and availability, organizers expect the mobile training centersmay spend aweek or up to amonth at a single location. Also, the vehicles will likely appear at job fairs, high school career days and other events, officials said.
A grant from theU.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration provided half the cost of funding the $1.6 million mobile training centers, officials said.