Paul D. Camp Community College will begin offering a forklift and reach truck course in Suffolk due to growing demand from warehouse and distribution centers, the course coordinator says.

Beginning in September, the college will run one 15-spot, three-day course providing a certificate to operate forklifts and reach trucks each month, said Bob Hayes, education programs coordinator for PDCCC’s Division of Workforce Development.

Day one, at the college’s Hobbs campus at 271 Kenyon Road, includes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration training that operators are required by law to receive, Hayes said.

During days two and three, which will take place at the Amadas Industries warehouse at 302 Kenyon Road, students will learn to operate forklifts and reach trucks in a real-world setting.

“They are actually in a warehouse operating a forklift and handling materials,” Hayes said.

Each day runs four to 4 ½ hours, he added.

The demand for forklift and reach truck operators, Hayes said, will be driven by the 15-year-old Panama Canal expansion project.

“That is increasing the activity at all ports up and down the East Coast, including Hampton Roads,” he said. “With that, there is a lot of development … (in) warehouse and distribution centers.”

Hayes said future development of Suffolk’s 937-acre CenterPoint Intermodal Center, currently home to Ace Hardware and Navy Exchange Service Command facilities, would drive much of the demand for forklift and reach truck operators.

“The employers of those centers need material handlers,” he said. “In the future, we will see steady growth of the need for these types of employees.”

Operators typically earn between $10 and $15 an hour, according to Hayes.

Work availability fluctuates, he said, but employers sourcing operators through staffing agencies evens things out so that workers can find steady hours.

“What I have found in this industry, when one warehouse is picking up another one might be leveling out,” he said. “Staffing agencies are able to go from one employer to the next to maintain steady employment.”

A reach truck certificate was added to forklift training after Franklin-Southampton Charities funded the purchase of a reach truck, Hayes said.

The course, previously offered at Franklin, is being brought to Suffolk for the first time after the college surveyed warehouse and distribution centers in its service area, he said.

“They helped us develop the program,” he said.

Utilizing the Amadas facility enables training in a real warehouse environment for the first time, which Hayes called a “real step forward.”

He said the college plans to introduce a logistics and management course in January 2014.

CenterPoint Properties offers scholarships, Hayes said, singling out for praise its senior vice president for infrastructure and transportation, Robert Harbour.

“We are trying to provide the workforce the skills they need to be employed in the area” as well as help the area’s economic development departments attract new businesses, according to Hayes.

The first course is scheduled for Sept. 10, 11 and 12, and early registration is encouraged. For more information, call the Regional Workforce Development Center at 569-6050, or visit www.pdc.edu/workforce-development.