President Vander Hooven discusses plans to add trade facilities to Mount Fitness
By Peter Edwards
Observer Contributor
Enrollment has been steadily dropping over the last several semesters at smaller colleges and universities across Massachusetts, including Mount Wachusett Community College. School officials and MWCC President James Vander Hooven have been searching for solutions to the problem.
Recently, MWCC applied for a $20 million grant to cover the cost of renovations to the Fitness Center, adding trade classrooms in much of the underutilized gym space and revamping the gym itself.
The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine predict that there will be a shortage of 3.4 million trade workers by 2022. President Vander Hooven said that MWCC will offer a more in-depth presentation of the trades, as well as give people the chance to become educated in the trade field of their choice if they didn’t go to a trade high school. Vander Hooven also said there is a need for trade classes at a college level because trades are becoming increasingly more complex and skill-oriented.
If the grant is approved this summer, the program will be called the “Center for Technical Education and Skilled Trades.” The program will offer classes for most traditional trades, such as electrical, plumbing, pipefitting, and construction courses, as well as opportunities to explore the business management side of these trades.
The program will partner with trade unions, the Chamber of Commerce, and regional employers to provide programmatic advising and to create a pipeline for apprenticeships and employment, President Vander Hooven explained.
When fully renovated, the new Trade Center will feature three 2400-square-foot shop/lab spaces, three general-purpose classrooms, a 100-seat lecture hall, three faculty offices, a student locker room/changing room, a library, three study rooms, and two conference rooms. This construction is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2022 and will hopefully be completed by the summer of 2024.
President Vander Hooven said that the Fitness Center will also reap the benefits from these renovations. A loss of two of the three basketball courts will take place but the equipment, the locker rooms, and the other aspects of the gym will receive much-needed updates as well as renovations. New studios for fitness classes, a potential update to the basketball court, and complete renovation of the locker rooms will be some of the notable changes.
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