LCC and Lansing BWL partner to build $2.1 million training center

Some startling statistics in the utility industry has spurred a unique job training partnership between Lansing Community College and the Board of Water and Light.

On Tuesday the two organizations broke ground on the $2.1 million Great Lakes Center for Utility Training. The center will train workers to work in the utility industry through an academic program, as well as pre-apprenticeship and in-service training.

“The original brainstorming discussions for the concept and development began in the fall of 2009,” says Dick Scott, Director of Apprenticeships & Career and Employment Services for LCC. “We felt that LCC in partnership with BWL could help meet the need for skilled workers.”

That need is great. According to Scott, the utility industry will be experiencing 40 to 50 percent attrition in the next three to five years. The Utility Training Center is tasked with training students to help fill the industry’s need for more than 1,500 workers, including electric line workers, plant operators, engineering technicians and designers and more.

The ground breaking marks the first of the project's five phases with electrical construction training utility poles. The next five phases will continue over the next few years, the fifth of which is scheduled to begin in March of 2013. All phases are contingent on funding and industry support.

Currently, the project is funded by LCC, BWL donations and in-kind labor, and various grant resources will be sought from National Science Foundation and US Department of Labor.

Source: Dick Scott, Lansing Community College

Writer: Natalie Burg, News Editor