Natural Gas and Continuing Ed - |Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press

Vast stores of natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shales running under Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia have set off a rush to grab leases and secure permits to drill using the extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. For example, one Student, Cory May, snapped up the opportunity through Zane State, to take a two-week, 80-hour shale exploration certification course developed by the private company Retrain America. When he graduated, he’d interviewed for three jobs and taken a position cementing wells for Halliburton that will pay $60,000 to $70,000 a year. Zane State is among dozens of public colleges and universities across the northeastern shale states that are moving to add new staff, academic majors or job-training courses in fields related to natural gas.