WORKING CLASS
Pipes glisten in the newly open Industrial Technology building at Francis Tuttle Technology Center’s Reno campus, 7301 West Reno Ave. The $6.5 million facility will house training for workers in some of the most in-demand jobs in Oklahoma and nationwide.
Francis Tuttle Technology Center is opening a new $6.5 million facility to train workers for some of the most in-demand jobs in Oklahoma and nationwide.
The 27,225-square-foot Industrial Technology center — the third building on Francis Tuttle’s south campus, 7301 W Reno Ave. — will train students for jobs in structural welding and advanced manufacturing.
Students will learn to operate a variety of equipment and how to keep everything working, said Tim Perdue, campus director.
The current welding program on the Portland campus consistently operates at capacity.
“It’s getting them ready for the workplace,” Perdue
said. “They are putting them to work like crazy.”
The additional space at the Reno campus will allow more students to be served — 18 in the morning class and 18 in the evening class.
Oklahoma industries have 1,045 annual openings for welders and the need is growing, according to the state’s critical occupations list.
Students in the Reno welding program began classes Jan. 7 and can complete the 900-hour training in a year, Perdue said.
The advanced manufacturing program will open in August. Students will develop integrated skills in the fields of machining, instrumentation and automation, electronics, fluid power, mechanical systems and more.
These skills traditionally have been taught in separate, stand-alone training programs, but modern manufacturing processes have created a demand for multiskilled workers who have strong abilities in more than one field, according to the Francis Tuttle program description.
“This facility will help address some of the skills gap and some of the things that are needed by manufacturing companies in our state and in the nation,” said Kurt Loeffelholz, president of the Francis Tuttle Board of Education.
“The technology is changing so rapidly that I don’t think we’re ever going to solve what we call the skills gap, but we’ve got to be able to react to it. That’s what’s so exciting about this campus.
“Companies want people and they want training that’s rapid,” Loeffelholz said. “Students want training that’s rapid so they can get out and make a living quickly.”
John Carnuccio recently retired as president and COO of Centek Inc. after running manufacturing companies for nearly 40 years.
“It is the bedrock of the economy, absolutely the bedrock,” he said Monday during the official opening of the new building.
Carnuccio said there are 13 million manufacturing jobs in the U.S., 180,000 of them in Oklahoma.
Projections show 3.5 million more jobs will be needed in the next 10 years, but 2 million could go unfilled due to the skills gap, he said.
State Rep. Tammy West, R-Oklahoma City, who represents much of the Francis Tuttle district, said the new facility is on the cutting edge. “This is what makes a real-world difference,” she said.