As part of a consortium with three other community colleges and the Illinois Community College Board, Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville has been selected to soon become a U.S. Department of Energy Industrial Assessment Center.
The Illinois Community College Board announced in a recent press release that it was awarded a $3 million Department of Energy grant and is partnering with the four community colleges to help manufacturers reduce waste and pollution and expand pathways to green jobs across the state. SWIC will get $595,000 from the three-year grant.
The consortium is among 17 other grant recipients that make up the first community colleges, trade schools and labor unions to be chosen as hosts for Industrial Assessment Centers in the program’s over 40-year history. The 37 existing centers are all located at four-year universities.
Scott Queener, director of enrollment development and campus operations, said that SWIC’s participation will involve a review of the college’s advanced manufacturing and heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration programs to ensure that clean energy solutions are incorporated into the curriculum.
Since the program involves partnering with small and medium-sized manufacturers, another goal for SWIC is to give students career opportunities through work-based learning opportunities with manufacturing companies, he said. Additionally, those companies will provide input on the programs based on what they see are needs in the workforce.
Queener said the bulk of the training and the assessments will take place at SWIC’s new $20 million manufacturing training academy, which will open its doors to students in fall 2024.
Construction of the 33-square-foot facility on the northwest corner of the Belleville campus has been finished. Now it’s being outfitted with the needed technology and equipment.
“Fortunately, because it’s brand new and they’re still putting in all the fancy machines, they’re already state-of-the-art as it relates to clean energy,” he said. “So we won’t have to spend money updating old machines because we’re putting in the latest, greatest tech.”
The details of the grant agreement are still being finalized, Queener said, and SWIC will begin implementing it April 15.
The goals of the Department of Energy’s Industrial Assessment Center program are two-fold: to support small and medium-sized manufacturers by providing assessments and recommendations for ways they can save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve productivity, and to build the “clean energy workforce.”
The centers have conducted over 21,107 assessments, making more than 157,367 recommendations to save manufacturers an average of $139,821 annually.
The Illinois consortium as a whole has been selected by the Department of Energy as a new Industrial Assessment Center, and the four community colleges will serve as “regional hubs” performing the assessments for manufacturers throughout the state, according to Illinois Community College Board Chief of Staff Matt Berry.
“Southwestern Illinois College is excited to partner with John Wood Community College, Lincoln Land Community College, City Colleges of Chicago, and ICCB to champion the need for waste and pollution solutions,” SWIC President Nick Mance said in the press release.
“We are excited to be at the forefront of embedding these solutions into our manufacturing curriculum. SWIC takes pride in providing educational opportunities related to clean energy jobs.”
