Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, Governor & Senators tour HCC EV Training Center

 

[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).

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.”

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]