The demand for electricians in Stevens, Ferry, Pend Oreille and Lincoln counties is estimated to grow at a rate of 1.9%, with 206 annual openings through 2027, according to State Employment and Security Department data. While the SCC Electrical Basics course does not prepare students to be electricians, students completing the course may find the course as an initial entry into an educational pathway or apprenticeship program that prepares them as electricians to fill this workforce demand in the Tri-County region.
With major support from US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Business Development grants, SCC, together with Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille County (Tri-County) business and workforce/economic development partners launched a new Industrial and Manufacturing Technology Certificate (IMTC) program in Colville in September 2019.
This program provides students from Northeast Washington rural communities with the opportunity to earn a certificate preparing them for jobs at Tri-County small machine shops or manufacturing firms without having to leave their home communities. There are no other locally available options to provide college-level certificate training for Tri-County manufacturers needing a training source to upskill their existing workforce or prepare local high school graduates for available manufacturing job openings.
Led by Wendy Drum, SCC Manager of Workforce Special Projects and Jaclyn Jacot, SCC Dean of Extended Learning and Workforce Initiatives, the IMTC program recently received another boost. The USDA granted the program in Colville $50,000 for new, state-of-the-art electrical trainers equipment. The electrical training equipment is needed to support the classroom shop/lab experience for the SCC Electrical Basics Course (ELMT 102) taught in Colville. The shop equipment introduces students to electrical controls using relay logic and provides hands-on experience to gain job skills such as electrical fault-finding, industrial equipment troubleshooting and automation processes training.
The demand for electricians in Stevens, Ferry, Pend Oreille and Lincoln counties is estimated to grow at a rate of 1.9%, with 206 annual openings through 2027, according to State Employment and Security Department data. While the SCC Electrical Basics course does not prepare students to be electricians, students completing the course may find the course as an initial entry into an educational pathway or apprenticeship program that prepares them as electricians to fill this workforce demand in the Tri-County region.