The Construction Industry Training Council of Washington, a Bellevue, Wash.-based apprenticeship and craft training nonprofit, has opened a Spokane-area facility and has selected a coordinator to lead its operations here for Eastern Washington.

The 13,000-square-foot facility in the Aero Road Business Center, at 10424 W. Aero Road, has classroom and lab spaces and staff offices, says Halene Sigmund, CITC’s Bellevue-based president.

CITC has named instructor Ken Hill as its Eastern Washington regional coordinator. The training center here will have three other instructors on staff initially, Sigmund says, adding that she anticipates the center will hire at least three more instructors during its first year of operation as CITC adds programs here.

CITC will provide state-approved and nationally accredited apprenticeship training for carpenters, electricians, laborers, and plumbers, Sigmund says. Depending on demand, it also will offer heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning classes, she says.

Classes will begin at the new facility in September.

“We currently have more than 60 apprentices who will be attending classes in Spokane and have the capacity to easily double that number,” Sigmund says.

The facility also will offer continuing education classes for electrical and plumbing license renewals and task-training courses, such as crew leader and project supervisor certification classes, she says.

Hill graduated from CITC and became a journeyman electrician in 1993. He also earned state-recognized administrator certification through CITC in 1999, and was an executive for an electrical contractor for two years before he opened his own company, KM Electric, which he still owns.

Hill has served on CITC’s electrical apprenticeship committee since 1995 and currently is a CITC instructor.

He will split his time between the east and west sides of the state until June so he can fulfill his teaching commitment at CITC’s Tacoma location for the balance of the class year, Sigmund says.

CITC also has training facilities in Bellevue, Bellingham, and Vancouver.