A truck carrying a Mazak Optiplex 3015 CO2 laser cutter, which probably doesn’t make headlines in most places, pulled into the Columbia Gorge Community College campus in The Dalles, Oregon, on a snowy Friday morning in February. However, that delivery was significant here, where the closest major city is an hour and a half away and the Columbia River flows through basalt cliffs. It meant that a rural college was quietly becoming serious about something that the rest of the nation talks about but seldom creates: a real, hand-trained clean energy workforce in areas that genuinely need the jobs.
For years, CGCC’s Regional Skills Center has been carrying out this kind of work, mostly without much publicity. The college is located in Wasco County, an area of Oregon where manufacturing jobs have always been more important than most coastal observers seem to realize. The region is home to numerous small and medium-sized manufacturers, and for a long time, their biggest challenge was finding skilled workers rather than capital or demand. The Skills Center was designed to fill that gap, and it has been doing so more quickly lately.
Apparently, the federal government took notice. With support of almost $2 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced in December 2024 that CGCC had been chosen as a new Industrial Training and Assessment Center. The funds are intended for a new curriculum, a manufacturer assistance program to help small businesses find ways to reduce their energy costs, and a dedicated training facility for 3D printing. Students, apprentices, and workers in their thirties who believed they had lost their chance at a career in advanced manufacturing are among the people who are moved by this type of investment rather than markets.
The way CGCC’s approach combines education with real-world industry service is what makes it intriguing—possibly even subtly ambitious. In addition to teaching, the college’s fabrication department collaborates with regional manufacturers to provide prototyping and fabrication at time-and-materials cost. No corporate margin, no markup. Just have access. That’s not a small convenience for a small business with a tight budget and deadline. It frequently makes the difference between a product idea that is tested and one that is not. The college seems to understand something that larger institutions often overlook: workforce development and economic development are the same thing, but they are described differently depending on who is in the room.
The recently installed laser cutter, which can cut metals and polymers with a level of precision that would have seemed unfeasible for a community college ten years ago, is a component of a larger expansion of the Skills Center’s capabilities. CGCC is constructing something more akin to a regional manufacturing lab than a conventional classroom when combined with the upcoming 3D printing infrastructure. It appears that the college is not considering a single graduating class because local unions, K–12 partners, and industry groups are all being incorporated into the plan. It is considering a pipeline.
It’s difficult to ignore the timing. Technically skilled workers are in high demand due to the clean energy transition, and four-year universities are not well-positioned to meet this demand. Community colleges fill that gap in ways that seldom receive the recognition they merit, particularly those that are prepared to operate equipment, uphold industry partnerships, and maintain affordable tuition. Although CGCC isn’t the only organization carrying out this work, it’s worth keeping an eye on because of its location, federal designation, and seeming willingness to take manufacturing seriously. It remains to be seen if the investment yields the expected returns. However, the laser is operational. That’s a beginning.
