FAYETTEVILLE — The opening of a green collar job training center at NorthWest Arkansas Community College has been briefly delayed. But officials are saying they anticipate a January opening.

The Arkansas Energy Office in Little Rock is working through curriculum and other issues related to the training center proposal the college submitted.

“Right now, while we’re waiting for this proposal to be approved ... We’re working out the accreditation that the (Arkansas) Energy Office is going to require,” said Rick Mayes, skilled trades coordinator at the college.

Mayes was speaking Thursday morning at a meeting of the Fayetteville Forward Economic Accountability Council’s green jobs group, which is charged with growing the green collar job sector in Fayetteville and other parts of Northwest Arkansas.

Two green job training centers — to focus on training areas like weatherization or energy auditing — will be at NWACC and the Pulaski Technical College in Little Rock. In Northwest Arkansas, some courses will be offered at the Bentonville campus, but a majority will likely be taught at a Fayetteville location, Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan said. That location is still undetermined.

But some of the selection criteria include choosing a site with at least 7,500 square feet under one roof, and with at least 100 parking spaces, said Steve Clark, president of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.

“They (the college) looked at a lot of sites all over the city,” Clark said. “Now they’re reviewing their information and will probably make a selection by the end of the month.”

“They’re brainstorming with their organization, and now we’re waiting for them to come back to us,” Clark added.

The training centers will be funded with a $1.3 million grant. And a next step will be to hire a program coordinator, Mayes said. That post should be filled by early January, he added.

It’s anticipated that the program will be sending its first graduates out into the workplace by autumn of next year, Mayes said.

By all accounts, the job training being planned is intended to respond to employment sectors not exactly familiar in Northwest Arkansas.

“How this program will look after one year is not how it will look after three years,” Mayes said.

The grant is for three years, “and the college is committed to make this sustainable,” Mayes added.

So part of making the training program sustainable could also mean developing the jobs.

“I think the $64 million question is, who’s going to hire these people,” said Melissa Terry, who works with the National Center for Appropriate Technology in Fayetteville.

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