Press Release
The figures speak for themselves.
There are 34 ethanol plants on the drawing board in Nebraska to go with the 12 already built, according to the Nebraska Ethanol Board.
Since the typical plant employs 40 workers, do the math and it translates into a need for more than 1,000 new employees, since plants typically work around the clock.
Who will train all the workers?
With a $2 million federal grant in hand, that job will fall to Northeast Community College and a coalition that includes the other community colleges, nine ethanol companies and six ethanol associations throughout the region.
The Nebraska Ethanol Production and Management Program will lead to a new two-year associate degree of applied science. That can translate into a four-year bachelor’s degree in several areas, if a student decides to seek advanced education.
A 2005 survey by the Nebraska Ethanol Board found an urgent need to train existing workers in the areas of unit operation, safety and environmental impact as well as to train new production workers.
The industry is in need of workers with laboratory, computer and teamwork skills and knowledge of distillation and fermentation processes.
Since no formal training program exists, each ethanol plant has had to develop its own internal training regimen, meaning substantial duplication or the need to send employees to nearby states, according to the survey.
Employers paid about $3,400 per employee for the training and lost six weeks of productivity while the worker was away learning skills.
Northeast Community College will act as the lead institution and fiscal agent for the new statewide Nebraska Ethanol Production and Management Program. A full-time coordinator at Norfolk will provide leadership to the on-site managers in each of the six community college districts.
The coordinator will oversee release of funds to the colleges to hire faculty members, purchase equipment and suppliers, develop curriculum and assure the availability of appropriate facilities.
Seth Harder, general manager of the Husker Ag ethanol plant at Plainview, is looking forward to the start of the effort.
“I think it will bring skilled workers to our table and also enhance the skills of our existing employees,” he said. “We had very little experience in ethanol when we started. It’s been sort of a school of hard knocks, learning along the way.”
Meetings have been held to design the curriculum of the new program, which will include the basic theory behind turning corn into ethanol. There will also be varying degrees of electrical-mechanical training, chemistry, thermodynamics and information on cooling towers and power transmission.
“It will be helpful to train and teach people basic theory,” Harder said. “People know how equipment works but don’t know why. It’s amazing to see the light bulb come on when they understand the theory behind the process.”
- Story Courtesy of the Norfolk Daily News
