Registration and class start date extended
BY RACHEL DOVE
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Start your career in the industrial sector in less than a year. The new TEK Center in Inez is offering 40 full-ride scholarships.
Enrollment has been extended until summer, and the class start date has been pushed back to July 17 to allow local graduating seniors to register.
TEK Center President Angie Reynolds says the industrial training center has partnered with the East Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program to provide the scholarships. The scholarships pay for everything, including tuition, labs, books and anything the student will require.
“These scholarships could, without a doubt, open doors for those who qualify and provide them with a certification and a nationally accredited license they can use anywhere in the United States, although we hope they choose to remain local,” Reynolds said.
Applicants must be 18 and have a high school diploma or GED.
“We are a fast-track program that allows our students to graduate 12 months from the time classes begin, ready to enter the workforce in a great-paying job,” said Reynolds. “There is no prerequisite for entering the program of a student’s choice. We offer everything they need to become certified.”
To apply for a scholarship or receive more information, call 606-534-3688 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday or apply online at tekcenterky.org.
TEK Center, located at 104 E. Main Street, Suite 100, Inez, currently offers skilled trade courses in heavy equipment operation, electrical, and industrial maintenance mechanics.
Heavy equipment operation: Heavy Equipment Operators work on regular construction and building jobs as well as roads, bridges, mining, and timber removal operations. This course will provide the necessary skills for any project that removes earth or demands moving and transporting heavy materials. The training consists of three levels and 558 total hours.
Level 1 Core: Orientation to the trade, equipment safety and identification, earth-moving and grades, utility tractors and forklifts.
Level 2: Civil drawings and excavation math, site work and soils, rough terrain forklifts and dump trucks, skid steers and scrappers, and loaders.
Level 3: Finishing and grading, off-road dump trucks, compaction equipment, backhoes, dozers, excavator and motor graders.
Electrical: Wire installation, electrical components, circuit breaker panels, light fixtures, switches, and blueprints are all part of this career field. This course will provide the necessary skills to prepare students for the journeyman electrician test. The course training consists of four levels and 694 training hours.
Level 1: Electrical industry, safety for electricians, electrical circuits & theory, introduction to the national electric code, device boxes, hand bending, wireways, raceways $ fittings, conductors & cables, basic electrical construction documents, residential wiring, and electrical test equipment.
Level 2: Alternating current, motors: theory & application, electrical lighting, conduit bending, pull & junction boxes, conductor installations, cable tray, conductor terminations & splices, grounding & bonding, circuit breakers & fuses, control systems & fundamental concepts.
Level 3: Load calculations – branch & feeder circuits, practical applications of lighting, hazardous locations, overcurrent protections, distribution equipment, transformers, commercial electrical services, motor calculations, voice, data & video, and motor controls.
Level 4: Load calculations – feeders & services, health care facilities, standby & emergency systems, basic electronic theory, fire alarm systems & specialty transformers, advanced controls & HVAC controls, heat tracing & freeze protection, motor operation & maintenance, medium voltage terminations/splices, special locations, and fundamentals of crew leadership.
Industrial Maintenance Mechanics: This type of mechanic is needed in every industry that uses machinery. Manufacturing, power plants, assembly plants all utilize industrial maintenance mechanics to install, dismantle, repair and maintain equipment within their operations. This course will provide the necessary skills training to meet the ever-growing demand for this career field. The course includes four levels of training and 703 total hours.
Level 1: Orientation & tools of the trade, craft mathematics & construction drawings, fasteners, anchors, gaskets & packing, lubrication, valves, pumps and drivers, test instruments, oxy-fuel cutting, material handling & rigging, mobile & support equipment.
Level 2: Basic layout, introduction to bearings, introduction to piping components & copper, plastic & ferrous metal piping practices, low & high-pressure steam systems & auxiliaries, valve identification, installation & maintenance, distillation towers & vessels, tube work, heaters, furnaces, and heat exchanges, cooling towers & fin fans.
Level 3: Advanced trade math, precision measuring tools, installing bearings, couplings, mechanical seals, belt & chain drives, setting base plates & prealignment, and conventional alignment.
Level 4: Preventative & predictive maintenance, advanced blueprint reading, compressor & pneumatic systems, reverse & laser alignment, troubleshooting & repairing pumps & gearboxes, and introduction to supervisory skills.