When Rend Lake College broke ground on a $1.3 million coal miner training facility over the summer, Gov. Rod Blagojevich called coal "The Comeback Kid."

He wasn't kidding.

"The Office of Coal Development at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity reported just last month that 2,000 new positions, 2,000 replacement positions, and approximately 4,200 indirect jobs will be created (because of the rebounding mining industry) in the next five to 10 years," RLC spokesman Nathan Wheeler said.

A look at the industry's history with the college - located in the heart of Southern Illinois' abundant coalfields - provides some insight into coal's once-mighty reign and its possible return to the economic throne of the region.

Back in coal's heyday, fully one-fourth of the RLC faculty was devoted to coal miner training, Wheeler said.

"We were training miners seven days a week in three separate shifts to meet the industry's demand for a skilled workforce. That was in the '70s," he said.

"By the early '80s, we saw what was once a 97 percent job-placement rate for our graduates dive to zero."

But because numerous coal mines and power plant projects are already operating or on the horizon for Southern Illinois, the coal mining curriculum is back on campus with a vengeance, Wheeler said.

"Located in towns from Akin to Zeigler, these operations are expected to need a minimum of 2,500 production coal miners," he said.

"Scientists, state coal officials and other experts are tasked with forecasting coal's resurgence in Illinois. Our job is to train a skilled and safe workforce, and it is a role Rend Lake College strives to be the very best at."

That training includes both new miner training and refresher training for current workers, RLC mining technology instructor Dave Colombo said, as well as state certification for mine managers, examiners, hoisting engineers and more.

The curriculum includes classroom, practical and safety training, he said, such as first aid, hearing conservation, preparation plant maintenance and repair, strata control and mine atmosphere instruction.

Other area community colleges are also working to meet the training needs of the industry, said George Woods, dean of workforce education for Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, a cooperative effort that includes new and refresher miner training at John A. Logan College and Southeastern Illinois College.

"We work with every coal company in the state and have 12 full-time instructors to provide services statewide," he said. "We provide training as driven by the needs of the industry."

The program has the funds in place to purchase a state-of-the-art trailer that will travel from mine site to mine site, offering rescue and fire brigade training, self-contained self-rescuer training, electrical training and other classes, he said.

Community colleges are preparing for a boom in the industry's growth.

"In our district, if the (new mine) permits go through we are going to be extremely busy. Right now there are 33 mines in the state, and in five years that number is expected to grow to 90," Colombo said.

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