Putting Skills to Work

October 2, 2011 at 12:01a.m.

Trade school expands to meet growing need

NEW CASTLE, PA.

Iris Kendall didn’t know much about being a machinist when she started at New Castle School of Trades last summer.

The 54-year-old Warren resident had just been laid off from her job of 6 years at KraftMaid, where she made cabinet parts.

She didn’t waste any time sitting on the sidelines and instead chose to undergo a career change.

Thirteen months later, Kendall has put herself in a good spot. She’s quickly built a work-ready skill base in a burgeoning field.

“They’re begging for machinists right now,” said Kendall, whose current project is cutting a roots-engine front-cover plate with a Computer Numerical Controlled machine.

Kendall is becoming the new face of trade schools such as New Castle: the longtime worker who’s recently been laid off and needs to sharpen and update his or her skills.

And it’s students such as Kendall that have added to NCST’s growing enrollment figures.

That was good news for the school, except for one problem: It was running out of space.

Last summer, NCST had a record enrollment of 700 students; this year it is back down around 550 but expects enrollment to grow again with the ramping of Utica Shale business in Northeast Ohio.

New Castle’s 45,000-square-foot facility on U.S. Route 422 in Pulaski had served its purpose during the past 50 years, said Rex Spaulding, president.

“We just outgrew it,” Spaulding said.

The result of the enrollment upswing was a $5 million renovation of a 93,000-square-foot New Castle building formerly occupied by West Penn Plastics that opened for summer classes this year.

The building debuts publicly at an open house from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday.

The new building, at 4117 Pulaski Road, just off U.S. Route 422, has absorbed the bulk of the work from the old building.

Building and construction trades and the electrician, CNC machinist, HVAC, refrigeration and commercial and industrial maintenance programs are all housed at the new building and have new shops that dwarf their previous confines.

Commercial truck driving and heavy-equipment operations classes continue at the old building.

As a result of the new space, Spaulding said that two new programs — diesel technology with power generators and with equipment repair — will begin this December.

The two-year programs, like most of NCST’s programs, are a necessity because of the projects surrounding the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Spaulding said that shale-drilling operations are powered by diesel generators.

With unlimited potential drilling sites, he said the need for repairmen for those diesel generators should continue to increase as drilling, especially in the Utica Shale, increases.

Spaulding also said that 85 percent of shale-related jobs are expected to be trade-skill based, which could continue NCST’s growth for years to come.

“It depends on how far out we reach,” he said, “but we can now hold well over 1,000 students.”

But that’s not all the school is planning.

Spaulding said wind technology and green energy or solar programs could be offered as soon as next year. An agriculture program soon could follow.

“We’re in a great spot for agriculture,” he said of the vast farmable land in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

In addition to expanding the programs the school offers, Spaulding said he hopes the new, state-of-the-art building will attract not only displaced workers such as Kendall, but also another kind of student: high-school students. “We think with this facility that high-school students will see it and want to jump right into it,” he said.

Jim Catheline, admissions director at NCST, said students of all ages have the most to gain at NCST because of the skills-only educational approach.

“People don’t come here because they want to go to school,” he said. “They come here because they want a job.”