In Kansas, Panasonic and two community colleges scaled up training fast. But jobs in the EV industry could be affected by Trump’s war on clean energy
In a Kansas City classroom, 20 students were learning how basic circuit boards work. They fiddled with knobs, switches, levers and wires; if they got the connections right, tiny light bulbs glowed.
The students, recruited for the opportunity by Panasonic, were participants in an eight-week apprenticeship course that involved classes at the community college and on-the-job training. When they’re done, they will be among the first workers at the company’s new electric vehicle battery factory in nearby De Soto, Kansas. The $4bn manufacturing plant – touted as the largest EV battery factory in the world – is expected to open in early summer and eventually employ roughly 4,000 people. Panasonic also paid for the students’ tuition, as well as the instructor’s salary.