U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann visited Barton Community College on Friday to tour the new Agriculture and Transportation Complex under construction on the east side of the Great Bend campus. He also saw the Case New Holland (CNH) classroom, Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) vehicles, and the Scale Technician classroom.
“I had no idea; this is incredible,” Mann said as he stood in front of a $280,000 tractor supplied by Case New Holland, which has a contract with Barton to train its equipment technicians.
Mike Johnson, chairman of the BCC Board of Trustees, said the college has trained CNH employees for decades. Free use of expensive equipment is one of the benefits of the partnership. Until now, only CNH employees could take advantage of this training. Next year, the college will also offer the CNH Top Tech Industrial Training program, open to anyone interested in learning to work on that kind of equipment.
Mary Foley, executive director of Workforce Training and Economic Development, said the Scale Technician class offered by Barton is the only one in the state.
Instructor Dr. Vic Martin said it is actually the only one of its kind in the nation. If a student successfully completes the program and learns the skills, a high-paying job can be secured at the end of one semester.
“I get calls from all over the country from people that want employees,” Martin said of certified scale technicians.
CDL instructor and coordinator Timothy McKiearnan said the college is now a CDL testing site. Although there are several testing sites in the state, “it’s really important to our local businesses,” he said.
The last stop on Mann’s one-hour tour was the Ag and Transportation Complex which will be home to new classrooms for such high-demand career programs as Agriculture Business Management, Crop Protection, Beef Cattle Production, and CDL. It will also house the CNH Top Tech Industrial Training program.
Foley said the college will continue to offer a program that is only open to CNH employees. Those students are sent here by CNH dealerships throughout the nation.
Ground was broken on the $3.7 million complex in February and it should be completed early in 2024.
“This has been something we dreamed of and we’ve been hoping for a long time,” Johnson said. Although Mann was only shown a few programs related to agriculture and transportation, he was told that Barton offers 30 opportunities related to workforce training and 26 of those are Career Technical Education courses. “Community colleges provide about 75% of the technical education in Kansas.”
“Those are the jobs the economy wants right now,” Mann said.