Changing lives: Team effort brings workforce training center to Marshall County
Elected officials, school officials, community leaders and more celebrated Thursday as Snead State Community College broke ground on a Workforce Skills Training Center, designed to provide career training for Northeast Alabama students to prepare them for jobs that will be in high demand in coming years.
Gov. Kay Ivey, Lt. Gov, Will Ainsworth, U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, Snead State Community College President Joe Whitmore and others said the facility can transform lives — and Snead State student Jake Knighten gave the story of one such life.
Knighten is a 2021 Boaz High School graduate, and will graduate from Snead State in May with a degree in industrial technology systems design.
During his junior year, he said, his plan was to skip college, get a job "and work my way up." Instead, after talking to school counselors, he decided to try dual enrollment at Snead State.
That led to a paid apprenticeship program — and his ability to work full time with Atrion Medical Products in Arab, while attending school at Snead.
"I've been able to save enough money to buy my own home for me and my fiancèe to have when we get married," Knighten said.
His prayer is that other young people will see the benefit of additional training, instead of going straight into the workforce.
"There's always more education that helps," Knighten said.
Ivey said, "We know that the needs of our workforce needs are ever-evolving. When you transform lives, you transform families ... neighborhoods ... communities ... the state ... the nation."
The project was a team effort: Aderholt it was underway when Whitmore contacted his office about assistance. He was able to secure $1 million in federal dollars for the project — primarily earmarked to purchase necessary equipment for the career and technical training and workforce development programs the center will offer.
With funding from the state, the Alabama Community College System and a donation of land from the Marshall County Board of Education, the project was possible.
Alabama Community College System Chancellor Jimmy Baker said this center is the first, but the system plans other such centers across the state.
“... This center will be dedicated to training for high-demand, high-wage jobs within our community,” Whitmore said. “I want to thank our partners in this project for supporting this endeavor.
"We look forward to working with our business and industry stakeholders to provide much-needed education and training to better equip the workforce in our area," he said. "We are already anxious to welcome the first classes of students to utilize the Workforce Skills Training Center.”
The 45,000 square-foot center will be located next to Marshall Technical School on U.S. Highway 431 and will be home to four career and technical education programs, including heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration; welding technology; machine tool technology; and industrial systems technology with additive manufacturing.
In addition, the center will have adaptable and flexible space to interchange programs as needed by the local workforce.
Also planned is an engineering design and 3D fabrication laboratory.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Workforce Skills Training Center predicted to 'transform' region
