Marvin Hunt, left, director of the Dwayne Peaslee Technical Training Center, gets some training from Tim Woodroof, physicality maintenance manager, center, as employee Maurice Murphy, right, works a packing machine at the Plastikon Industries Inc. located in the East Hills Industrial Park.

It is one of those surprises in life.

You graduate high school, head off to college on your way to some great career, and then …

“You’re studying in an area you’re interested in, and then you find out it is not that interesting,” said Marvin Hunt, executive director of the Dwayne Peaslee Technical Training Center. “Or, you find out there are not that many jobs out there.”

But then another type of surprise can happen, Hunt said.

“Then they remember they welded a time or two, or they remember some of the skills they used growing up on a farm, and they find out they can make the same amount of money or more, and do what they really enjoy,” Hunt said.

In Lawrence, finding the type of training needed to launch such a blue-collar career has been difficult. Lawrence residents who are past their high school years often have had to drive to Kansas City or Topeka for such training.

Hunt said the new Peaslee Center will start meeting some of those training needs by mid-August.

Project leaders learned earlier this year that they didn’t win a key federal grant they were seeking, but Hunt said plans still call for the center to open Aug. 15.

The initial scope, though, may be a bit different than what was first envisioned. Hunt said the center initially won’t be a typical technical training center or community college that employs its own faculty and instructors.

“We’re kind of like an educational broker,” Hunt said. “We will facilitate other educational partners coming in and offering classes.”

That means students may actually enroll with community colleges or other technical training centers that would use the Lawrence facility to host classes. A detailed list of organizations that plan to offer classes at the facility hasn’t been finalized, but previously community colleges in Neosho County, Johnson County and Kansas City, Kan., have expressed an interest.

In the beginning, classes largely will be limited to three industrial categories: manufacturing, automotive and construction. In addition, Hunt said, he anticipates there will be some general classes in areas such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, team work and other such “soft skills” that area employers have told Hunt are often lacking in job applicants.

The center will be in the former Honeywell plant just east and north of the 31st and Haskell intersection. The Lawrence public school district is building a new college and career center adjacent to the facility. The district’s center will focus on training high school students in areas such as robotics, health care, information technology and similar subjects.

Hun said high school students will have an opportunity to take classes at the Peaslee Center if they are interested in one of the career paths offered by the center. Hunt said he also has been in discussions with the school district about some of the district’s high school automotive classes moving to the Peaslee Center because it will include a state-of-art automotive lab. A decision on such a move hasn’t been made, he said.

Several details must be worked out before the center can open. For example, about $1.2 million worth of renovation work still needs to be completed at the building. The center will be seeking partial funding from the city and county commissions in the coming weeks. Hunt said when the center learned in September it had not won the $10 million Department of Labor grant, Peaslee Center leaders had to adjust their plans.

“The silver lining in all of this is that the grant made you look at certain types of programs,” Hunt said. “Now, we have every freedom to look at any programming.”

Hunt said the center settled on the initial areas of manufacturing, automotive and construction for a variety of reasons. A number of auto dealers said they have high demand for trained mechanics and often have to send their existing mechanics to seminars outside of the region for training.

On the construction front, Hunt said that although single-family home construction in Lawrence had slowed some, there are still jobs available in commercial construction, especially as Kansas University has undertaken many projects.

Manufacturing jobs in Lawrence have been fairly stagnant in recent years, but Hunt said economic development leaders believe part of the reason is that the community hasn’t had a technical training center to supply the workforce to new manufacturers. Creating that workforce, and in turn attracting more manufacturers to the area, is a major goal of the center.

“On the top line of our mission statement is to be a catalyst for economic growth,” Hunt said.

But Hunt said he’s equally excited about some of the opportunities the center will create for area residents. Hunt has had a career in higher education since the 1980s and most recently was the head of workforce development and dean of business and continuing education at Kansas City Kansas Community College. He has been a Lawrence resident since the 1970s, and he said the opportunity to help build a program in his home city was appealing.

“I think we can really help people develop a sense of career,” Hunt said. “I think that is sometimes missing with people.

“It is really appealing to me to think I can be part of laying a foundation that will help people make a living wage here in Lawrence for years to come.”