If you’re not going to class, you’re not getting educated.
But for most prospective community college students, showing up to class isn’t always a matter of bravely rolling out of bed and wandering campus in your pajamas despite a harrowing hangover.
The logistics of attending class can prove impossible for adults who are juggling jobs and families.
That is set to change for Southwest Colorado Community College, a division of Pueblo Community College, which on Monday unveiled three new mobile learning labs – which are essentially giant metal trucks with classrooms in the trailer.
The 48-foot labs, which cost $300,000 apiece – including outfitting them with specialized equipment – will allow Southwest Colorado Community College to take classes on the road, said Tomas German-Palacios, operations coordinator in Pueblo Community College’s Economic & Workforce Development Division, at the labs’ unveiling ceremony in Durango on Monday.
Each mobile learning lab is fitted with technologies specific to an energy-related field: there’s an electrical-systems lab, a mechanical-systems lab and a welding lab.
In the Four Corners, where gas, oil and mining are staple industries, SCCC spokesman Guy Franchi said he expects the labs to revolutionize the way many professionals get training.
Many adults who’ve considered enrolling in a community college course to expand or gain new professional skills have been prevented because they can’t afford the commute to campus – it takes too long to get to campus, or because class times conflict with their long working days.
But Franchi said with the mobile technology labs, companies that can’t spare their workers to attend classes at SCCC for whole days can hire the mobile technology labs and get them trained at the office, or, rather, in the office parking lot.
“It saves a lot of time,” he said.
The welding lab’s first deployment will take place this week, providing training to workers at AngloGold Ashanti Mine in Victor, near Cripple Creek, west of Colorado Springs. The labs are also scheduled to provide technical training to employees at GCC Energy and Lisbon Valley Mining Co.
Franchi said the cost of renting a mobile lab for employee training will vary according to topic, duration and people enrolled in training.
SCCC’s three new mobile learning labs were developed as part of a $2.2 million U.S. Department of Labor grant awarded to PCC in August 2011 to enhance current energy-related programs.
PCC has already used four existing mobile learning labs (specializing in welding, machining, mechanical systems and electrical systems) headquartered at its main campus in Pueblo to serve workforce training needs in Southeast Colorado. Since 2008, they’ve rarely proved idle: They’ve trained more than 2,000 people and, according to SCCC, they’re in use about 85 percent of the time.
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
