Lamar State College Port Arthur is committed to finding more jobs and training for their students.

This week, they added another specialization certificate to their associate’s program to do just that.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges approved LSCPA to begin teaching classes for students to receive the Liquefied Natural Gas Manufacturing Advanced Technical Certificate.

“What it is, is liquefied natural gas,” Sheila Guillot, LSCPA department chair of business and industrial technology said. “We have Golden Pass LNG, which is a special production that a lot of the time uses cryogenics.

“Students and workers have to be very aware of how they are loading and unloading ships or terminals because if that material touches metal it destroys the metal and they’ll have to replace all that. It’s like process operation at a refinery, only LNG is a little more specialized.”

The certificate will include a total of five classes, three on liquefied natural gas and two on heating, ventilation and air-conditioning. All classes will be held at night.

“For a student to get into the LNG Advanced Technical Certificate here on campus they have to have a degree in process technology or instrumentation,” Guillot said. “One of the classes we have is just an introduction to liquefied natural gas, so if you don’t know anything about it you can take this class to learn the overview of LNG and how it works. You’ll learn about gas properties, composition and safety.”

Classes will also allow students to have hands-on practice.

“Hands on is the operations work in an LNG plant and how to work in this type of plant,” Guillot said. “They will learn how to transfer the material to a ship or to a railcar and do it in the safest matter. We also hope to have training equipment here where they can actually have hands on here as well.”

Guillot said the point of the program is to create more jobs for students and to be able to place them in careers at local refineries.

“Jobs — that’s what we want for our students,” she said. “With LNG we are going to have software downstairs where students see a simulation, find the faults and learn how to troubleshoot. They will also learn the basics of commercial refrigeration because that involves the liquefied natural gas.”

Southeast Texas has three major LNG plants that Guillot said the school worked closely with to know what was needed for the certification program. Cheniere Energy and Golden Pass are both LNG export facilities in Sabine Pass, Sempra LNG is also moving ahead with plans in Port Arthur.

“This is a niche that hasn’t been filled and that’s what we are trying to do,” she said. “We have so many LNG plants coming into this area, we want our students to be trained on what it means. We want them to understand what it is, so when they get there they are ready to go.”

Students will be able to enroll in this program in the 2019-2020 school year. If interested, students can apply at www.applytexas.org or stop by the campus on Aug. 24 for Super Saturday, an event hosted for students who are trying to get in last minute.

For more information visit https://www.lamarpa.edu/Home.