Trade, industry programs boom at North Idaho College

On the south edge of Rathdrum where farm fields are giving way to development, North Idaho College will start construction in the spring on a new home for trades and industry programs such as welding, machining and diesel technology.

The school’s professional-technical programs are scattered throughout the Coeur d’Alene area in tight quarters and some temporary spaces. When the new 110,000-square-foot building opens on Lancaster Road in July 2016, NIC’s core programs all will be there.

With a budget that could climb to $20 million, the project also is one of several new buildings in the pipeline for NIC. The college is moving forward on a student services building to share with other college branches in Coeur d’Alene, and officials are mulling a student recreation center proposal as well.

Student interest in NIC’s career technical programs has remained high, with graduates able to find well-paying jobs after one or two years of training, said Chris Martin, vice president for finance and business affairs.

“These are programs that traditionally have had wait lists,” Martin said. “And so we’re trying to address not only the needs of industry … but also a demand from students.”

That has been a challenge with classroom and shop capacity putting constraints on enrollment.

“On the one hand we’re saying, ‘Hey, there’s great-paying jobs for you,’ and on the other hand it’s, ‘You’re going to have to wait a semester or a year to get into this program,’ ” Martin said.

About 230 students are enrolled in the programs now. That number is expected to grow to around 325 in the next five years.

“There’s a significant amount of jobs out there in the trades area right now,” said Doug Anderson, chairman of NIC’s Trades and Industry Division.

A growing economy explains part of the demand, along with retiring baby boomers creating new openings, Anderson said.

“I’ve seen all kinds of statistics, and they’re pretty significant, in regards to the amount of people leaving versus those coming into the trades,” he said.

He said he hears of companies turning down contracts because they can’t find enough qualified machinists or welders to do the work. That’s helping drive up wages for these jobs, which also tend to be relatively recession-proof, Anderson said.

Manufacturing and trades employment is expected to be a fast-growing part of the region’s economy, said Alivia Metts, regional economist with the Idaho Department of Labor.

Manufacturing job growth in North Idaho is projected to rise 15 percent – faster than the average for all industries – between 2012 and 2022, Metts said. About 125 job openings annually are expected in this sector.

One in five manufacturing workers is set to retire over the next five to 10 years in Kootenai County, creating openings for a new generation of workers to step in and keep up productivity, she said.

Dovetails with KTEC

NIC’s Career Technical Education Facility will go in next to the Kootenai Technical Education Campus, the hybrid high school that opened in 2012 under a partnership of the Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland school districts. That is expected to make for a seamless transition from high school to college programs, boost opportunities for high school students to earn college credits through dual enrollment, and strengthen collaboration between high school and college instructors at the Rathdrum campus.

“I think it only makes that partnership so much stronger and really allows the faculty to work hand in hand,” Martin said.

The Rathdrum building will go up on 10 acres of a 40-acre parcel NIC already owns. It would more than double the space for the programs moving there and leave plenty of room for expansion.

“We’re excited because it leaves a lot of potential for the future,” Martin said.

The original $15 million price tag would accommodate five programs: diesel technology; machining and computer-numerical control technology; welding technology; industrial mechanic/millwright; and computer-aided design technology.

The college also hopes to move its automobile collision and auto repair programs to the new facility. That would push the budget to $20 million, and NIC is pursuing a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to cover the additional cost.

The rest of the building will be funded with $11.5 million in capital reserves, $2.5 million in operating reserves and $1 million in tax-anticipation notes.

Coeur d’Alene-based Architects West is designing the facility. Construction bids are expected in April or May.

Although the building will be about a 20-minute drive from NIC’s downtown campus, the location is strategic, Martin said.

“We can really draw from Post Falls and Hayden and Rathdrum, where we are seeing some movement. There’s both population shift that way and more of the industrial sector is gathering on that side of the county,” he said.

The project also will free up considerable space on NIC’s main campus, particularly in the Hedlund Building, the center of career technical education for 40 years. Martin said the college will be able to move other programs around and make way for new ones as a result.

Also coming up

NIC has two other building projects in the works.

In an effort to smooth the transition from community college to four-year degree programs in Coeur d’Alene, NIC, the University of Idaho and Lewis-Clark State College each has asked the state Permanent Building Fund Advisory Council to help support a $12 million student services and classroom building on campus.

Student advising, financial aid and registrars’ offices for the schools would be housed together.

The building also would include new classrooms and labs to be shared by the colleges.

NIC’s Dormitory Housing Commission, which built the student union and residence hall on campus, now proposes a student rec center with a gymnasium, walking track, rock-climbing wall and space for wellness programs.

The estimated $7.6 million construction cost would be financed through revenue bonds to be paid from student fees and rec center revenues.

The commission will present its proposal to the NIC Board of Trustees on Wednesday night.