Wal-Mart opens training center for new managers in Airway Heights

Wal-Mart has opened a facility in Airway Heights to train entry-level managers from around the region.

The center can train up to 90 people at a time, though most of the classes will have about 15 members, said Kristen Wilkinson, senior director with the Wal-Mart U.S. Academy team.

The managers will go through two weeks of classes to prepare them for their new duties. Wal-Mart plans to open 200 of the new training centers by the end of the year, Wilkinson said.

The Airway Heights facility is a 2,500-square-foot modular building on the parking lot of the existing Wal-Mart at 1221 S. Hayford Road. It will draw trainees from Eastern Washington, Oregon and North Idaho. The first class of trainees graduated Tuesday.

Walmart also has awarded $365,000 to Washington State University for research related to recycling waste cotton through spinning techniques. The grant comes from the company’s U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund.

Becky Kramer