CEU gets $2.7 million for energy training

Despite cuts in mining training programs over the past two decades at the College of Eastern Utah, the school in Price is getting $2.7 million toward a new energy training center.

"It's not just mining, it's all of energy training," said CEU spokesman Brad King.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, announced recently that the federal grant for a new center will come from the Department of Labor.

"Price is an important energy hub for Utah and for the West," Hatch said in a press release. "This is a big win for Price and Carbon County."

The Southeast Applied Technology Center will be one of several partners with CEU on a place that will provide continuing education courses for people in the oil, gas and coal industries.

"They will provide some of the training — I'm not sure exactly how it's going to be divided out," King said of SATC's role.

Previously, energy companies have been sending employees to Texas, Wyoming and New Mexico for the extra training. CEU is working with institutions in those states to match the curriculum here for the new center.

"We feel it will save the local companies a tremendous amount of money by providing that training here," King said.

The grant for CEU is part of a broader effort to ensure a strong domestically trained work force in this country's rebounding energy sector, according to a statement from Hatch's office. In the 1980s and 1990s, CEU experienced cuts in shorter programs to train miners — it still offers, however, an associate of applied science degree in mining.

Now the energy industry, including mining, is in need of training programs for workers who need more math, science and technology to fill highly skilled, well-paying career opportunities outside of the stereotypical "unstable, dirty and low-skilled" jobs.

A possible site for the center is the old Willow Creek Mine at the mouth of Price Canyon just before Helper, said CEU President Ryan Thomas, who is also a member of the 150-plus member Utah Energy Producers Association. There are four newer buildings at the Willow Creek site, which Thomas said has been reclaimed since its days as an active mine.

"It would be a nice training center in that regard," Thomas said.

The UEPA, he added, was created in contemplation of opening a center.