Training skilled workers of the future.

• Author: Blake, Kathy
• Position: SPONSORED SECTION

A 21,000-square-foot brick and darkened-glass building in the Gastonia Technology Park on Highway 321 near Gaston College's main campus holds classrooms, training rooms and a large, open flex lab that can duplicate facilities of advanced manufacturing companies. Students learn technical skills that segue into profitable employment or gain job-specific knowledge while already employed. Manufacturing and energy industries preparing to locate in Gaston County utilize office space here until their new site is complete.

The Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) opened in 2017 as a nucleus for learning, practicing and applying training in mechatronics, industrial-systems technology, instrumentation, alternative energy and other technical trades prevalent in Gaston's landscape. In the corresponding Apprenticeship 321 program, employed students follow an occupational pathway tuition-free, while pursuing journey-worker certification, a diploma or an associate degree.

"The goal is to demonstrate increasing responsiveness to the work needs of our community," says Dennis McElhoe, vice president of Economic and Workforce Development at Gaston College. "The CAM is the basis for the apprenticeship program. We have a coordinator and a success coach working in that area, and our apprentices and degree-seeking students who are part of the regular college programs are enrolled at CAM."

Fifteen area companies have partnered with Apprenticeship 321, McElhoe says. "We're getting an increasing number of responses from within our region, and I think it's going to be more and more as we go along. We're still doing tours. It's been less than a year!'

The hooks for Apprenticeship 321 are timing and salary. McElhoe tells a story of two graduates who, through employee-sponsored training, were able to graduate with no college debt and purchase a house. The oldest was 21. "I don't know a lot of people who come right out of college and can buy a house. One was in mechatronics, and one was an industrial maintenance technician."

This spring, the college...