The grant comes from the U.S. Department of Energy with the goal of establishing training programs for clean energy jobs.
Lorain County Community College, along with its partners in Ohio TechNet, which is a higher education manufacturing and tech consortium under Lorain County Community College, has received $2 million in grant funding from the US Department of Energy to establish the Ohio TechNet Industrial Assessment Center to provide job training for careers in manufacturing and clean energy.
According to an article on Lorain County Community College’s website, Marcia Ballinger, Ph.D, the president of LCCC, shared her thoughts about the role the school will play in the region’s manufacturing workforce development. She is quoted as saying, “As states across the U.S. embrace a manufacturing shift toward processes that help small and mid-sized business save money while reducing energy waste, LCCC is proud to help lead the workforce training within the cluster-specific, in-demand manufacturing occupations that will drive this shift.”
The Ohio TechNet Industrial Assessment Center, or the IAC, will be located at Lorain County County Community College, and will deliver career training for manufacturing jobs, including electric vehicle and semiconductor manufacturing. These jobs are expected to continue growing in Ohio and hold the opportunity to earn wages that will support a family, without a four-year degree.
In addition to training students in advanced manufacturing skills, the IAC will also provide benefits to small and mid-sized manufacturers (SMMs) in the area. These benefits are talent needs assessments and technical assistance and the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute’s Smart Manufacturing Acceleration Framework.
Terri Burgess Sandu, who serves as the director of talent and business innovation at LCCC, said, “IAC will provide customized solutions for SMMs as part of a novel approach to supporting sustainable or smart manufacturing. This technical assistance to SMMs will range from adopting smart manufacturing processes and technology to talent planning for business growth.”
Several company, entities, and organizations have lent their support to the IAC project at Lorain County Community College, including Aircraft Wheel and Brake LLC, DuPont, Lincoln Electric, Thogus Products Company, CESMII – Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, SEMI Foundation, NextFlex – Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute, ARM Institute – Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing, Construction Employers Association, OhioMeansJobs-Lorain County, OhioMeansJobs-Cuyahoga County, Fund for our Economic Future, Cleveland Builds, Cleveland State University EMDiS Entrepreneurial Manufacturer Digitization Support, Case Western Reserve University Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center, and Team NEO.
For more information about Lorain County Community College, visit the school’s website.