Federal grant to help Louisville college modernize electric vehicle curriculum

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A nearly $500,000 federal grant will help a Louisville college's electric vehicle training initiative and support the state's EV industry.

Jefferson Community and Technical College received the three-year Advanced Technological Education grant from the National Science Foundation.

The grant will help JCTC update its hybrid and electric vehicle curriculum to "align with current industry needs," and build a training certificate.

"This NSF ATE grant allows us to modernize our HEV/EV curriculum and ensure that both new and current technicians have access to the most up-to-date HEV/EV training available," Ty Handy, JCTC president, said in a news release Wednesday. "We are proud to lead our region in offering dedicated hybrid and electric vehicle instruction, and this investment will help fuel the talent pipeline that supports our state's growing automotive sector."

Leaders said the grant will also help secondary and post-secondary automotive instructors in the state who want to incorporate hybrid and EV training by collaborating and providing guidance on instruction.

JCTC said automotive instructor Nick O'Brien worked with Anna Kensicki and the group Mentor Up to apply for the grant in 2023. O'Brien will lead the initiative with program coordinator Stephen Frame and instructor Will Riggs.

"EVs are getting more and more popular every year and fundamentally it's a car," O'Brien said. "We've been teaching people how to fix cars for years, but there are some things that don't segue over from the internal combustion side, specifically the high voltage that it takes to power the motor generators."

To learn more about JCTC's Automotive Technology programs, click here. It's open to anyone eligible to take classes at JCTC.

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