School ready to break ground on technical occupation center

Northwest-Shoals Community College - Northwest-Shoals Community College officials will break ground Tuesday on a $1 million center at the Phil Campbell campus that will focus on training workers for multi-skilled jobs.

The new building will include classrooms for both welding and machine shop work. It will enable the Phil Campbell campus, for the first time, to offer a technical occupational program, said Timmy James, associate dean of instructional programs at Northwest-Shoals.

Although nursing also is offered on the campus, "This is a true manufacturing type program. We've never been able to offer that on the Phil Campbell campus before," James said.

The investment shows that even at a time when one in eight working-age residents are unemployed, welding and machine work has attracted investment.

Lin Liles, welding instructor at Northwest-Shoals, said most of the demand is coming from the railcar project, one that promised up to 1,800 jobs but has stalled during the recession.

The foreign-based automotive industry throughout the state and the ship-building industry in Mobile also have helped increase the spark in would-be welders.

"There's a trend there for welding," said Kendall Haywood, public relations for the Alabama Industrial Development Training. "We can't find enough welders."

The building will contain a classroom each for welding and machine work and a shared 10,000-square-foot equipment area.

Students will be able to obtain an Associates in Occupational Technology degree with a major in welding and minor in machine or vice versa, James said.

"We already have a welding and machine program on the Shoals campus," James said. "Both in the past two years have grown tremendously, both cases there are waiting lists to get in the program."

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@TimesDaily.com.