Columbiana County Career and Technical Center assistant superintendent Jeremy Corbisello discusses the center’s plan for electric vehicle training during a roundtable held at Columbiana County Career and Technical Center on Tuesday. Director of the Ohio Department of Development Lydia Mihalik attended the event as did Columbiana County local leaders. (Photo by Stephanie Elverd)
Mihalik joined the CCCTC’s administration and staff as well as local leaders, area superintendents, automotive dealership businesses and workforce professionals to consider what the Electric Vehicle Workforce Strategy, which anticipates the creation of over 25,000 new jobs by 2030 through a combination of electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing and maintenance, battery development manufacturing and charging station installation and operations, means to the current and future workforce in and around the county.
“There are a lot of young individuals in the county that are looking for training that will expose them to new careers,” CCCTC assistant superintendent Jeremy Corbisello said. “And there a lot of dealership representatives in the area have indicated that they need a workforce for maintaining and repairing electric vehicles (EV). Hopefully, we can provide students with a vast array of training that could lend itself to manufacturing, technology and emerging careers. We are taking the old adage that we have always had here and turning it into a new adage by training students for jobs that don’t exist yet.”
John Kufleitner, owner of Kufleitner Auto Group, said there is already a demand for EV training. He expects that need to only grow in the future and expressed that keeping young workers in the area has become an exigency.
“There’s a huge need and we are trying to grab everybody we can,” he said. “Our workforce is getting older. They are aging out and we are not having enough young people coming in. The young people grasp all this new technology and we want to keep avenues to keep them here. These kids learn and they grow and they move away. We need to create opportunities to keep them here.”
Director of the Ohio Department of Development Lydia Mihalik joined Columbiana County local leaders to discuss the Electric Vehicle Workforce Strategy launched by the Gov. Mike DeWine’s Office of Workforce Transformation during a roundtable held at Columbiana County Career and Technical Center on Tuesday. (Photo by Stephanie Elverd)
The CCCTC is doing what it can to provide those opportunities and create the anchors to keep local students in the local workforce.
In April, the CCCTC board approved a resolution to take steps toward benefiting from funding set aside through a budget proposal from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. A $200 million was earmarked for career tech construction and $100 million for equipment. The center is planning an addition that would expand programs to meet expanding technology, with an emphasis on innovative energy like EV technology and the inclusion of solar power into the construction technology program as well as advancing interactive media. With $3 million already secured, an additional $5 million is needed to complete the project which is estimated to cost $7.7 million dollars. According to Corbisello, that price tag covers construction, equipment and instructor training.
“The plan is to add physical space for a new automotive technology and automotive collision repair facility that will be able to serve electric vehicles,” Corbisello said. “The new addition will give us a lot of space and free up our current space for automotive technology and collision repair. We will be able to include construction in there and add additional training for solar and energy storage. We are looking at semiconductors, robotics and things of that nature.”
Corbisello asked Mihalik to point the CCCTC in the direction as the center continues to seek funding to make the expansion a reality.
Mihalik, who said she was impressed by Tuesday’s turnout which included local mayors, county commissioners, heads of education and industry leaders, promised she would do all she can to help the center reach its vision.
“I would say that your community is aligned, you have a common goal and have put this much energy behind that goal and that you have a very high probability of being successful. Gov. DeWine, Lt. Gov. Husted and myself want to support that success,” Mihalik said. “We are in unprecedented times. We have a ton of resources and we are in the fun time now when we can deploy those resources. Between the EV Workforce Strategy, Chancellor (Randy) Gardner’s super RAPIDS program his team has to deploy and the tremendous amount of resources we have in the Department of Development, there are opportunities to help you.”
Utilizing those opportunities to create more for Columbiana County is the main objective.
“I don’t think you can put a number on or quantify the need for opportunities for people in our community,” Corbisello said. “I can ensure that any help that comes in or anyway you can assist us will only inspire us to go that much harder for this community.”
(selverd@mojonews.com)
