business backgrounder | education & workforce a job fair caps each six-week CDL course . Local and regional transportation employers make a point of having a presence at each of these events , Reimer said .
“ The fact that you have that number that want to be there every six weeks tells you the work is there ,” Reimer said .
Wes Hartwell , Raymond , a CDL student at Grays Harbor College , said he and some of his fellow students had already been approached by local companies weeks before graduation . Hartwell , a former pilot escort vehicle operator with a goal of driving logging trucks and eventually longhaul routes , said there are 600 loads for every driver daily in Washington .
“ The industry is so understaffed that our class graduates on a Friday and I can almost guarantee all of us will be working Monday ,” Hartwell said .
Lower Columbia College offers both a non-credit CDL course through continuing education and also a credited class , primarily for the college ’ s Diesel Tech program . The program has a 94 % pass rate among CDL students . For LCC , WA CDL money is planned to fund improvements over the next three years , including : providing training for instructors , including what is needed to offer HAZMAT endorsements ; adding at least one new instructor ; increasing number and size of cohorts ; and purchasing a training simulator .
One of the most impactful uses of the WA CDL money at LCC has been student scholarships , said Jennie Bergman , Workforce Education Manager . Each cohort at LCC is just four students , which is limited by the size of the trucks they use and the required instructor to student ratio . Before the WA CDL funding allowed LCC to offer student
Deshawn Zeno of Hoquiam flips through a book of CDL training materials . Behind him is a flatbed truck that was paid for thanks to the new WA CDL grant program funded by the 2022 Legislature . With this and other new equipment , graduates of the CDL program at Grays Harbor College will graduate with knowledge of five different types of truck transmissions . scholarships , cohorts were only occasionally full and they did not have waiting lists .
“ The legislature understood
Now , they do . the extreme shortage we had
“ It ’ s the cost that ’ s the barrier . It ’ s not
in CDL drivers and wanted to the level of interest ,” Bergman said . “ The create some form of educational students who are in this program are so excited for how this can change their career program that would enhance the path and their lives .” number of CDL licenses created ,” At Grays Harbor College , WA CDL money funded a second cohort , which is offered
— Education for Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges in partnership with WorkSource Grays Harbor . For student Deshawn Zeno of Hoquiam , that was the key to accessing the CDL training he had wanted to pursue but could never afford . After completing a seasonal job with UPS , Zeno received unemployment benefits , which qualified him for WorkSource funding to attend CDL training .
“ The WorkSource funding made it possible for me to do this ,” Zeno said .
For GHC , access to the WA CDL grant funding has reinvigorated a CDL program that shut down during the pandemic . The program was restarted in spring 2022 with two adjunct professors offering one course each quarter . One year later , GHC offers both a Certificate of Achievement and a Certificate of Completion and boasts a success rate of 100 percent of graduates receiving their CDL .
spring 2023 39