Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas celebrated the grand opening of the new $20 million Peoples Energy Training Center, a new utilities training center in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, according to an annoucement from the mayor’s office.
The facility will provide annual training to more than 1,600 workers and fire officials as well as vocational programs for CPS students. the programming will begin this summer and help prepare students from Dunbar Vocational, Fenger, Little Village and Lawndale for potential jobs as gas-track workers. The program includes a six week summer internship for two cohorts of high school students, five field trips to the training center and other hands-on experiences.
“Turning this once vacant piece of property into a state-of-the-art training center for generations of workers was only possible because so many people shared a vision of what could be accomplished together,” said Peoples Gas and North Shore President and CEO Charles Matthews in a statement.
The 100,000-square-foot training center is located at 4228 W. 35th Place and features indoor and outdoor training areas including a fully functioning natural gas delivery system with 20 structures for training maintenance, gas leak investigation, excavation and directional drilling. The campus also has areas for fire prevention training and space for a commercial driver’s license training.
The facility was constructed by Ujamaa Construction and two regional engineering firms.
