Southwestern Illinois College is adding a new skilled trade programming to its Red Bud campus with a new 7,800 square-foot Career Technology Education building.
Construction begins Friday, and students are set to start using the CTE building in Spring 2026. The $5.5 million project, financed through bonds sold a few years ago, will house welding and industrial electricity programming, plus forklift training.
“Throughout this project, we just didn’t say ‘this is what we need to do,’ we very much listened to our community and our business partners,” said Robert Tebbe, SWIC’s chief enrollment development and institutional planning officer.
Red Bud Industries, along with many manufacturers nationwide, need welders and there’s a growing need for individuals with forklift certificates in SWIC’s southern region, Tebbe said. Equipment in the new facility will be the same used in actual industry, best preparing students to enter the workforce, Tebbe said.
SWIC is also considering adding plumbing, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and CNC (computer numerical control) machining programs to its Red Bud lineup, Tebbe added.
Forward-thinking is key to CTE building, Tebbe said, explaining how what the CTE building includes when it first debuts could look very different from what it features decades later.
“We’re not building this facility for the next 5 to 10 years, we’re building it for the next 30 to 40,” Tebbe said. “What’s going to be important 10 years from now might not be that important today, so it’s very important that this facility is adaptable to workforce needs.”
With the addition of CTE programs, SWIC hopes to boost its annual Red Bud enrollment from approximately 100 to 300 or 500 students, Tebbe said.
Holland Construction is behind the project’s preconstruction work, and SWIC also contracted with Farnsworth Group for architectural services.
A groundbreaking event is set for 10 a.m. Friday at the Red Bud Campus, 500 West South Fourth St.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Madison Lammert is a reporter for the BND, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
