This morning, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded a $720,000 grant to J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Richmond for the development of a new workforce training program for next-generation electric vehicles.

The grant will be used to create a new "Advanced Electric Drive Vehicle Career Studies" certificate program at JRSCC.  The program will focus on training future technicians to work in the electric, fuel cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

JSRCC, which is only one of 10 education programs selected by the Department of Energy, wrote in a release that their new program will create a new crop of technicians trained in next-generation battery and electric vehicles:

“This grant will allow JSRCC to maintain its position of providing leading edge automotive technology to our students. As manufactures move toward electric propulsion vehicles, JSRCC will be able to provide highly qualified graduates for these emerging technologies. By providing the courses in a distance learning format, the reach of the program will be national in scope,” said Bob Heinz, Ph.D., JSRCC Dean of the School of Business and Engineering Technologies.

The funding is part of a $2.4 billion investment from the economic recovery package to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of electric cars, batteries, and components here in the United States.  Companies receiving the grants must come up with matching funds, and these investments are expected to create tens of thousands of jobs and jump-start development of a U.S.-based car-battery industry.