Overview: Staffing of the Prairie State Generating Company Mine
Click here for the Mining Opportunities brochure.
Thanks to a partnership with the Illinois Eastern Community Colleges (IECC), Prairie State is proud to announce the development of a Mining Certification Program that will help enhance educational opportunities for the region's large and talented workforce, and provide interested individuals a uniform understanding of the development and operation of a mine, environmental and safety systems, mine equipment and facilities and logistics and communications systems.
With an estimated construction cost of nearly $4 billion, the Prairie State Energy Campus in Washington County, Ill. is one of the most significant economic development projects in the history of the state. Once complete, the project will include a 1,600 megawatt supercritical power plant fueled annually by more than six million tons of coal from an adjacent underground mine.
As a result of the participation of eight electric cooperatives and municipal power agencies and the nation’s largest coal producer, Prairie State will begin to deliver low-cost electricity to more than 2.5 million families in nine states in the 2011-2012 timeframe.
Applicants interested in a mining position at Prairie State should complete the Mining Certification Program, possess "first class papers" documenting their level of experience or have the appropriate and applicable level of technical skills. Further, qualified applicants to the Prairie State mine must complete pre-employment testing.
- More than 300 qualified mining positions will be filled, beginning in May 2010 and continuing through October 2011.
- Wages and benefits will be competitive and commensurate with experience.
- PSGC will show strong preference to individuals who complete the IECC Mining Certification Program.
- PSGC will interview every interested applicant that successfully completes the Certification Program and passes the applicable pre-employment tests (the Bennett Mechanical Test and the ACT ASSET test).
- Prairie State may make conditional employment offers to individuals who desire to start work following completion of their degrees.
- The first Mining Certification Program class will commence on this summer and finish in April 2010. Additional Certification classes will be announced by September 2009.
- The Mining Certification Program will be comprised of 29 college level credit hours.
- All credit hours completed for the Mining Certification Program count toward an Associate's Degree in Mining Technology. NOTE: An Associate's Degree is not required for PSGC employment.
Individuals interested in enrolling in the Mining Certification Program or the pre-employments testing should contact one of the following:
- Ms. Lynda Price, IECC (Marissa): 618-295-2232
- Ms. Sibyl Janello, John A. Logan Community College (Carterville): 618-985-2828, ext. 8371
- Ms. Diane Mitchell, IECC (Harrisburg): 618-252-5400, ext. 2360
Or visit IECC's website at www.iecc.edu/we/ to view the current schedule.
The Prairie State Generating Company is the project manager of the Prairie State Energy Campus Project facilities owned by the following organizations: American Municipal Power of Ohio, Illinois Municipal Electric Agency, Indiana Municipal Power Agency, Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission, Kentucky Municipal Power Agency, Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency, Southern Illinois Power Cooperative, Prairie Power, Inc. and Lively Grove Energy. Our member owners are proud to be the hometown energy provider for hundreds of communities from Wetzel County, W.Va. to Whiteside County, Ill.; from Cass County, Mo. to Caldwell County, Ky.; and many points between.
