29-01-2025
How Panasonic's EV battery plant employees are getting trained
DE SOTO, Kan. — Panasonic's $4 billion Electric Vehicle Battery Plant is due to open in the spring but the process to train enough workers to get it working has been going on for more than a year and a half.
Soon after the Panasonic plans were announced in 2022, inside Tesla's Gigafactory plant and works with Truckee Meadows Community College to train its workers.
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In Dr. L. Michael McCloud says JCCC was able to learn from that process while creating the curriculum with Panasonic and KCK Community College.
'When those students walk out of this program after eight weeks with those skills, the folks that have taught them all those skills, given them the tests and tried to assess whether they know [the material] will also be with them in the factory directly helping them translate from the classroom to the real world,' McCloud said.
It's possible because both the instructors and students in the apprenticeship program are already Panasonic employees. Their classroom has been custom-built to have the same equipment they'll eventually work with in the plant.
The eight-week class will have 20 students at a time. Two instructors to rotate with the students means McCloud hopes to eventually train up to 200 employees in a year or year and a half.
The plant is due to open in the next few weeks and will need 2,000 employees in the start of 2026. As it grows, McCloud said the people who complete the entry-level but skilled training can come back and get other qualifications to advance through the company.
A partnership with Kansas State will even create a path to a four-year degree and the higher incomes it can bring.
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'Through that cooperation with the company, the two-year sector, and the four-year sector, we're able to provide a student pathway to go from hiring to basic training to a job to an associate degree to a bachelor's degree to and endless world of possibilities,' McCloud said.
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