TRIDENT TECH: Gearing up to teach thousands assembly skills

Power tools emit high-pitched screams inside a Trident Technical College classroom as students learn how to drill a fastener into a thin composite plate.

None of the two dozen students take their assignment lightly. Next week, they could be drilling those same fasteners into the side of a real Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

For three years, workers at the former Vought and Global Aeronautica fuselage assembly plants have made their first stop at ReadySC's Dreamliner training program, learning how to read blue prints, obey the rules of a sterile work environment and seal together lightweight composite plates that make up the outside of the 250-passenger aircraft. And instructors are now bracing for thousands more students in the wake of Boeing's announcement that it will build a second assembly line in North Charleston.

Boeing Co. executives who worked out the final expansion plan details insisted that the state-sponsored ReadySC program train new workers for their future assembly facility. Already, the program has trained about 1,400 workers to work on the Dreamliner project in the last three years.

The program costs $10 million of the massive $450 million state incentive package offered to Boeing earlier this week, but state lawmakers proclaimed the program invaluable, a tool that outfits the region's manufacturing workforce with a company's precise skill needs.

"Frankly, it's some of the best money we spend as a state," said House Speaker Bobby Harrell. "Think about it: we're providing training specific to a job (workers will) have when they get out."

During negotiations, Boeing executives candidly told state leaders they worried about finding enough skilled workers in the Lowcountry, which doesn't have a long-standing aviation manufacturing presence, Harrell said. At the company's main manufacturing hub near Seattle, officials could draw from a large pool of workers whose aviation skills, in some cases, have been passed down through generations of families.

"They told us, 'You guys don't have workers who have the skills we need,' and we said, 'We'll train them,' " Harrell said. "The state has a track record that shows them we can."

Throughout the state, more than 2,000 companies, including major employers such as BMW, Michelin and Lockheed Martin, have relied on the ReadySC program to train their workers. A total of 230,000 workers have gone through the program, which is more than 10 percent South Carolina's entire work force.

At Trident Tech's Rivers Avenue campus, Dreamliner program instructors teach courses about workplace safety, fastener removal and adhesives to future Boeing and Global Aeronautica workers. Training lasts six to eight weeks.

The instruction area's maze of labs and classrooms carry the piercing smell of acetone, a clear liquid that students use to clean off parts before sealing them airtight. The classrooms are lined with cabinets of materials and neatly labeled drawers of industrial supplies, which came directly from Boeing suppliers.

One training track teaches how to properly join the pieces of fuselage. Another set of classes explains how to install the plane's mechanical systems, such as air conditioning and plumbing.

Jim Maxon, who oversees the Dreamliner training, said the program works because of collaboration between the instructors and Boeing managers, who frequently visit the classrooms to check on their future employees.

"We've always encouraged open doors and for them to come over and sit in on classes," he said.

Future training for the second assembly line will energize a cavernous building at the back of the campus that sat empty Wednesday.

Instructors are already preparing the building for second assembly line training, clearing out training materials for DuPont's unfinished Kevlar plant and Bosch Corp., the Dorchester Road automotive manufacturer that has laid off several hundred employees during the recession.

The building is large enough to fit an entire Dreamliner wing.

Program administrators also have started to thumb through catalogues of Boeing parts, gathering lists of materials they'll need for student practice.

Earlier this week, Mira Janssen of Hollywood, a petite woman, wielded her drill with ease to fasten nuts and bolts to composite plates.

At her former job at Bosch, she used computer systems to inspect fuel injectors. This aviation work was strenuous -- less button-pushing and more hands-on -- but she said it wouldn't be hard for other workers to learn.

"It's no different than when you use a drill at home," she said.

Reach Katy Stech at kstech@postandcourier.com or 937-5549.