OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Johnson County Community College in Overland Park is eager to prepare the future Panasonic workforce in Kansas.
The college is offering curriculum prepared specifically for new jobs at EV battery facility in De Soto.
"This is the grandest opportunity we've had in the state of Kansas," said Elisa Waldman, the vice president of Workforce Development at JCCC.
Four-thousand jobs are coming to De Soto, and that means getting a new workforce ready.
"We're heading over to the Kansas Bioscience Authority Building," Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said. "That will become a training center, and it will train folks who will be able to work here at Panasonic, and then that will broaden out, and it's a partnership with Johnson County Community College."
The college is preparing for current and future students to become future Panasonic employees.
"It will change the skill level of our labor force forever," Waldman said. "We welcome people of all ages and all backgrounds to come back for training or re-training."
At JCCC's Career and Tech Center, students will be getting their hands dirty in labs and learning the necessary skills for careers at the new facility in De Soto.
"We serve businesses throughout the community and frankly throughout the country crafting curriculum, we call it customized training," Waldman said.
JCCC is leading a higher education consortium to provide those points of entry to learn for those careers.
"What we really need to be able to understand in the end is the requirements for the labor team, the requirements for the staff at Panasonic, and helping them identify the gaps in the work force," Waldman said.
With shovels in the ground and tractors rolling in De Soto, a future is being built, with new careers that will build Panasonic products.
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