By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Administrators at North Central Kansas Technical College have come up with so many new programs the past few years, you're never quite sure what the logo on their shirts is going to read.

On Wednesday, it was Kansas Institute of Underground Technology embroidered in the upper left-hand corner of shirts worn by Clark Coco and Don Benjamin.

Coco, president of the technical college with campuses in Beloit and Hays, and Benjamin, dean of the Hays campus, were instrumental in starting yet another program geared toward training students and getting them out in the workforce in a short period of time.

Later this month, NCKTC will begin offering an underground directional drilling program on the Beloit campus that will help provide trained employees for one of the fastest growing industrial needs among utilities and the communications industry. Training on the Hays campus soon could follow.

"That's what's nice about this," Benjamin said. "(The machine) can be moved, so it's actually a mobile course that can be taught in different places."

Coco on Wednesday told a packed house in the administration building on the Hays campus that the program is believed to be the first of its kind at a technical school in the United States.

"The only place you could get the training (before) was in business and industry," Coco said. "We just saw a need, and we thought we'd jump in first."

"Our goal is to be the premier training center in this industry," he added.

A forerunner in technical training, NCKTC already has been providing students instruction on underground drilling with simulators.

But, Coco said, "Simulators only get so much of the real-life activity."

So in a collaborative effort with Ditch Witch, an underground construction equipment company in Perry, Okla., NCKTC wrote a grant and was awarded nearly a quarter of a million dollars from the Kansas Department of Commerce to purchase a mid-size machine for classes.

"We try to keep pretty good equipment in front of the students, and we have good agreements with different companies," Benjamin said. "We lease equipment from companies and use them for 200 hours, then give them back. We approached Ditch Witch with the idea, and here we are."

A big drawing card, Benjamin thinks, will be the short length of the course -- eight hours a day for five days, in addition to a two-day locator training, as well as a one-day mud-mixing school.

"If we can come up and develop the standards for certification," he said of future plans, "(students) will be able to get certification through the state of Kansas."

Both Benjamin and Coco think it will catch on in a hurry.

"The demand for these people is going to be incredible," Coco said.

Ready to dig in?

For more information on the new Kansas Institute of Underground Technology, call North Central Kansas Technical College at (800) 658-4655 or visit its website at www.undergroundtech.com.