BANGOR – When displaced millworker Jim Burgess walked into a classroom last fall for the first time in more than 35 years, he admitted he was a little nervous.

The unemployed, 341/2-year Great Northern Paper veteran said he decided to put a positive spin on his situation by signing up for a heavy-equipment operators course offered at Eastern Maine Community College and United Technology Center.

“After 35 years working in the same place, you’re in a rut,” said the Millinocket resident. “When you lose your job, you become a little down, a little depressed. It [the class] was a way to pick me up. It was challenging and it was refreshing.”

Burgess was not alone. He took the course along with 52 other displaced GNP workers.

“Compared to high school students, these guys have a very strong reason to be here and they’re motivated,” instructor Mike Brown said. “There were a couple of guys who were terrified because they hadn’t done math since high school. They all made it.”

Associated Constructors of Maine, or ACM, and the Training & Development Corp. partnered with EMCC and the UTC to offer the nationally accredited heavy equipment operator program.

The 375-hour class will end next month and students are spending this week working on their final class project – to lay 950 tons of asphalt pavement throughout the EMCC campus.

“The ACM-certified classes are based on training designed by the National Center for Construction Education & Research, with some modifications made to address the needs of Maine’s construction industry,” said Scott Tompkins, public relations director for ACM. “So when they graduate they will all be certified.”

The paving project is also a cost-saving measure for the college. EMCC will only pay $27,500 for materials because the students will supply free labor and three ACM-member companies are donating use of the heavy equipment and supervisory personnel.

The heavy equipment operator’s class has been so successful, a new class that specializes in craft worker training will soon begin.

“The craft worker training that we’re offering starts in June and we already have 200 displaced millworkers lined up,” Tompkins said. “There are nine modules for various aspects from carpentry to pipe fitting, to welding. The beauty of it is that there is a need for those skills in the work force right now.”

Another heavy equipment operator class will begin in the fall.

“These guys, for the most part, knew how to run the equipment,” Brown said. “What they needed was to be able to say they have experience and are certified.”

Alvin J. Coleman & Son Inc. of Conway, N.H., had two representatives at EMCC on Wednesday to watch the progress of the paving project and to look for future employees.

“We’re collecting applications,” said Noah Coleman, owner and vice president of the company. “We have the need for 25 to 30 operators. This is a wonderful opportunity and we felt we needed to take advantage of it.”

Coleman said the construction company is looking for workers for a large, three-year project in central Maine set to start in the near future.