Tesla is trying to make it easier for local students to become service technicians with the electric-car maker.

On Tuesday, San Jose-based Evergreen Valley College said it will be the first Bay Area college to offer Tesla’s START program, a 12-week program that trains community college students to work on electric vehicles and become vehicle technicians at Tesla service centers. Students are paid during their training and are then placed in jobs at Tesla service centers around the country after completing the program.

The Tesla START program will be offered to between 12 and 15 EVC students, with its first session beginning in January 2019.

In a statement, Maniphone Dickerson, EVC’s dean of business and workforce, called the partnership with Tesla “vital to propel and prepare our students for a high demand and emerging occupation within the transportation industry.”

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Tesla driver ‘completely reclined’ and apparently asleep at 90 mph, police say EVC will become the fifth community college to partner with Tesla’s START program. Other Tesla START programs are located at Rio Hondo College in Wittier, near Los Angeles; Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina; Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, near Detroit and Shoreline Community College in Shoreline, Washington, near Seattle.

Tesla said 63 students have graduated since the START program began earlier this year, and it expects more than 40 more students to graduate by the end of the year.

Tesla said it and Evergreen would be hosting informational sessions about applying to the START program at 6 p.m. Tuesday, and at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at EVC.