Heartland Community College will soon start building a new manufacturing training facility on campus as part of its partnership with Rivian to supply a workforce to build electric vehicles.
Heartland president Keith Cornille said electric vehicle production training will be just one part of the new Advanced Manufacturing and Training Center.
“It also takes robotics, it also takes electronics, it also takes these other types of programs that are part of that,” Cornille said during a Workforce Equity Initiative at Illinois Central College. “Making sure we have strength in all of them moves the entire EV program forward in our community.”
Cornille said the new building will accommodate 200 students.
Heartland's electric vehicle and energy storage programs, which the school refers to as EVES, are currently housed in Bloomington at a facility the college leases on Martin Luther King Drive. Some of the equipment from that facility will move to the new facility, said Steve Fast, Heartland’s director of public information.
The new building will cost $17.5 million. The Heartland board of trustees has approved a $13.6 million contract with Johnco Construction of Mackinaw.
The state of Illinois awarded Heartland $7.5 million for the facility last year. Cornille said the rest will be paid for through private donations and borrowing.
The district on Tuesday also approved issuing $12.1 million in bonds to help pay for various projects.
Heartland also in the midst of building a $23 million agriculture complex.
