December 8, 2022 – With an Illinois Community College Board grant totaling more than $63,000, Richland Community College is creating a one-year program to help 12 adults (who have not completed their high school diploma) earn their GED and Diesel Service Technician Certificate.
This program will begin in January. In the spring semester, participants will focus mainly on GED courses. For the summer, they will begin working on their Diesel Service Technician Certificate and get paired with local businesses for paid on-the-job training ($15 an hour). Those businesses include ATI Fleet Services and ADM Trucking. Students will return to Richland in the fall to complete their GED and certificate.
The grant – which totals $63,310.64 – will pay tuition for the 2 diesel mechanics courses, textbooks, testing supplies and exam costs for the GED. It will also reimburse the local businesses for the participants’ paychecks.
“This is a great opportunity for current and future Adult Education students to work towards a certificate in a high demand, high wage career,” said John Oliver, Dean of Workforce Development at Richland. “The median wage for diesel mechanics in Decatur is over $54,000/year and the projected demand over the next 8 years is near 7%. The common denominator I hear from those performing this work is that they don’t want a desk job and have always enjoyed taking things apart. We need more people that want to take things apart and troubleshoot mechanical problems.”
New and current GED students are eligible for this program. New students can go to richland.edu/adulted to schedule an orientation for their GED. Anyone interested should reach out to the Adult Education program. (Their contact information is on richland.edu/adulted.)
