FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 13, 2008
Contact Ben Chambers, (770) 537-5756
COLLEGE MAKES SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT IN CARROLL
West Central Technical College may have four campuses and touch 10,000 students, but that doesn’t mean the College has forgotten its first campus in Carrollton.
In fact, the Carroll Campus is serving as many students now as ever in its almost 40-year history, and WCTC is making significant investments in the facility and curriculum to ensure its vitality in the future.
“The Carroll Campus is extremely important for us,” President Dr. Skip Sullivan said. “Even with four campuses in four counties, we continue to serve nearly 1,300 credit students on the Carroll Campus, and we serve more students from Carroll County than any other county.”
One sign that the College believes in Carrollton is the relocation of the Electronics Technology program from the Murphy Campus in Waco to Carrollton. The move – at a cost of around $45,000 – enables the program to utilize newly renovated space in Carrollton and to share resources with the Industrial Electrical Technology program. IET has been housed on the Carroll Campus, but also moves into the newly renovated space in the 300 building.
“We are excited about the added benefit to students that the program relocation will bring,” Vice President of Academic Affairs Pat Hannon said. “Having the Electronics and IET programs housed together increases the possibilities for us in both programs.”
Hannon said the shared facilities will improve instruction in both programs. “We now have the ability to expand the curriculum of both programs to include aspects of each other,” he said.
The Electronics Technology program offers both an associate degree and a technical diploma in either general electronics or industrial electronics, Hannon said. The program focuses on what people might think of as smaller components — digital circuitry, sensors, microprocessors, even basics like soldering.
The Industrial Electrical Technology program offers a technical diploma and focuses primarily on skills used in the construction industry – residential and commercial wiring, single- and three-phase motors and transformers.
Hannon indicated that the College would like to use the integrated programs as a way to facilitate an open-format “maintenance college” concept which would allow businesses to send their employees to classes either during the workday or in the evenings. The “maintenance college” would be managed through the College’s Economic Development Division which focuses on workforce development and continuing education.
“The open format maintenance college concept will afford business and industry ‘just-in-time’ training opportunities. Through the maintenance college, we will be able to respond in a rapid fashion to specialized training needs of our industrial partners,” Vice President of Economic Development Phil Carter said. “Our corporate training department supports initial employee training for new and expanding industries in our service area through Georgia Quick Start. By utilizing the experience we have gained over the years in this training arena, we can leverage that expertise to benefit our local existing industry.”
Carter said he would be working in the next few months to create a workable way to use the newly integrated lab space to begin the maintenance college concept.
Carroll Campus Director G.W. Rogers said the electronics program is a welcome addition to the Carroll Campus.
“We are glad to see the significant re-investment to the Carroll Campus,” Rogers said. “It really shows the commitment Dr. Sullivan and the whole College has to Carroll County. This is where the entire College started almost 40 years ago as Carroll Tech. We are proud of our roots here and excited about our future here, too.”
Rogers said the Carroll Campus is also adding a new stand-alone welding building to provide that program with additional space and better facilities.
“With some of the new industry in Carroll County – like Bobcat – our welding program has grown,” Rogers said. “The new facility is very much needed to meet this growth and provide space to expand our welding curriculum. The industry requires well-trained welders, and we want to meet their needs and make sure Carroll County has a qualified workforce.”
The commercial truck driving program – one of the most comprehensive in the state – has seen significant growth and investment as well, with a new driving range and new equipment including a refrigerated trailer and ‘pups,’ twin trailers that can be pulled in tandem.
The College also headquarters its Adult Education department on the Carroll Campus. Adult education provides classes and testing to help adults who never graduated high school get their Graduation Equivalency Diploma (GED). Executive Director of Adult Education Dr. Richard Robinson, who oversees adult education in the four-county service area said 722 people attended GED classes last year in Carrollton, with 251 obtaining their GED.
“Adult education is an important part of the mission of West Central,” Sullivan said. “It provides another opportunity to people to take control of their lives and do something positive for their future.”
Sullivan said the revitalization of the Carroll Campus is part of College-wide planning to continue growth. “We are experiencing significant year-over-year enrollment growth. Our commitment is to continue to provide the quality education that industry demands and that our students deserve. It takes foresight and investment to do this.”
“We now have bookstores, admissions counselors, financial aid and all of our enrollment services for students available on each campus,” Sullivan said. “We do this to better serve students. We are student centered.”
And Sullivan looks forward to this the 40th anniversary year for West Central Tech.
“We’ll be throwing a big party this fall,” he said, “in Carrollton.”
West Central Technical College, with campuses in Carroll, Coweta, Douglas and Haralson counties, offers over 90 associate degree, diploma and technical certificate programs of study. A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, West Central last year served over 10,000 students including credit enrollment, adult education, ESL classes, continuing education and corporate training.
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