ELEANOR, W.Va. — The head of the Putnam Career and Technical Center says he’s excited about jobs created by the Google data center planned for property near Buffalo.
PCTC Principal CD Caldwell was a guest recently on MetroNews “Midday” and said he’s done research on how many jobs that data centers bring to communities. Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced in late March that Google acquired 1,700 acres of land on both sides of Route 62 to construct a data center.
Several residents of Putnam County have raised concerns about data centers during Putnam County Commission meetings since the announcement. Caldwell said those claiming that data centers will only bring 5 or 6 jobs are incorrect.
“Google opened up in west Memphis, they’re opening it up, they broke ground on that in October of 2025,” Caldwell said. “They’re projecting about 200-300 jobs there from what I’ve read.”
Caldwell said the PCTC is positioned well to prepare its students for jobs with data centers.
“A lot of those are jobs that don’t require a college education, and a lot of them are things we’re already doing here (at PCTC) and be a direct pipeline from high school into the workforce,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell noted that a computer science course at PCTC lays the groundwork for data center positions, educating students with IT training and networking pathways.
“One thing we do offer here is, we offer certifications, industry-recognized certifications, that students get if they go to a community college, if they go to a four-year college,” Caldwell explained. “Part of their work in college would be getting these certifications, like the CompTIA A+, the CompTIA Network+, the CompTIA Security+.”
Those certifications are offered through local Pearson VUE testing centers, Caldwell said.
Caldwell reported the priority is training students to get ready, all while avoiding going into college debt and gaining real-world experience. He said that’s a big selling point of PCTC.
So much of today’s world is relies upon data centers, Caldwell said, and many people don’t recognize it.
“Students don’t realize that every time they’re playing their video games online, their games aren’t being saved on the internet,” Caldwell said. “They think the internet’s just up there, in the literal clouds, (but) they’re coming from these data centers. Right now, there’s 500 hours of YouTube videos being uploaded every minute to YouTube. This is all where it’s being stored at.”
Caldwell said it’s very exciting to have one in the community to bring jobs. Additionally, he said it’s great to have a big name-brand like Google in the community.
To those who are skeptical about data centers, Caldwell encouraged them to keep an open mind.
“Let’s make the best of it,” Caldwell said. “My main job is connecting students to high-paying jobs as quickly as possible. I’m just looking at it from that viewpoint. I understand people’s concerns, of course there’s going to be concerns, anything we put in, any type of industry coming in, when Toyota came in, there was people against Toyota moving into the community.”
“Today, if it hadn’t been for Toyota moving into our community 26 years ago, 26 years ago our chemical industry in the Kanawha Valley was floundering,” Caldwell added. “So, that addition into our community at that time, I daresay, helped to save this entire area.”