The governor made the announcement at the Illinois Institute of Technology Wednesday afternoon.
The school will receive more than $5 million to train people for high-tech jobs in the electricity industry.
"I think it's important in respect to energy efficiency that we understand that this is a mission of national security, we want to make sure that our energy - when we have it, we're not squandering it," said Gov. Quinn.
The program is paid for with federal stimulus money and with funding from the Illinois Jobs Now program.
It is expected that more than 49,000 power industry employees, union workers, teachers and students will be trained in the first three years of the program at IIT.
