Transportation
Secretary Buttigieg, Governor & Senators tour HCC EV Training Center
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[February 17, 2022]
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, joined by
Governor JB Pritzker, Senator Dick Durbin, and Senator Tammy
Duckworth, toured the classroom and workspace used for Electric
Vehicle maintenance training at Heartland Community College (HCC).
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The visit to the Electric Vehicle Training facility
in Bloomington was the centerpiece of a stop by Secretary Buttigieg
to the Bloomington-Normal area. Buttigieg, Pritzker, Durbin,
Duckworth met with a group including industry leaders and HCC
President Keith Cornille before touring the EV training space.
“We had great roundtable conversation at Heartland about the EV
training that’s going on as we seek to build a workforce ready for
the enormous number of jobs that will be created in the electric
vehicle economy,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg,
during the visit to the HCC EV Training Facility, “We just had an
opportunity to see for ourselves not just the equipment but the
students who are very much at the forefront of the electric vehicle
revolution.”
In 2021, Heartland announced the creation of the Electric
Vehicle/Energy Storage (EVES) Manufacturing Training Academy, in
conjunction with the receipt of a $7.5M capital grant awarded by the
State of Illinois through the Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity. The first cohort of students began in the EV program in
the Fall 2021 semester.
“The program here at Heartland is enormously
important as an example of what we’ll be doing all across the
state,” said Pritzker. “This is part of what we’re trying to get the
workforce ready for.”
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The facility toured on Saturday, Feb. 12 is the temporary home of
the EVES Academy. The College is planning to construct a 6,200 square foot
laboratory, training, and storage space on the Normal campus to expand
programming and offer more training in High-Voltage Battery Technology.
“It was a pleasure to meet with Secretary Buttigieg, Governor Pritzker and
Senators Durbin and Duckworth at our EV Training Center,” said Heartland
President Keith Cornille. “It provided them a first-hand opportunity to meet the
students who will be working in this emerging industry. With this
first-of-its-kind program to allow Heartland provides cutting-edge training not
otherwise widely available at downstate community colleges to develop new talent
for higher paying jobs of the future, boost retention of manufacturers in
downstate communities, and attract more investment by manufacturing companies
throughout Illinois.”
[Steve Fast
Director, Public Information
Heartland Community College]
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