Allen Community College will help provide training for employees at a yet-to-be-announced semiconductor manufacturing facility in rural Coffey County.
Allen President Bruce Moses discussed the plans at Wednesday’s ACC Board of Trustees meeting.
Coffey County has acquired more than 200 acres of land near Beto Junction for a plant, with the plans to tap into federal CHIPS funds.
An announcement is scheduled for Monday, he said.
Allen and Flint Hills Technical College have been targeted as the institutions of higher learning to help provide training for employees once the plant is open.
Employees will need to be skilled in such things as robotics, CNC operations and welding, Moses said.
The college also is working with the Kansas Department of Commerce to get a workforce grant to fund the training program in its infancy.
“We’ve got a lot of great opportunities here,” Moses said. “We’re very excited about all of this taking place.”
Allen also has applied for a state grant through a partnership with B&W Trailer Hitches in Humboldt to provide training for prospective employees there.
In both instances, Allen is pursuing an avenue to get skilled workers into the workforce quickly, Moses noted.
“We’re doing the things we said we wanted to do,” he told the trustees. “We want to grow enrollment and grow our CTE (career technology education). They want people to get jobs quickly. We’re carving out a pathway for that.”
