A-B Tech Wins Workforce Development Award
A-B Tech Community College received the Workforce Development Award from the Community Colleges of Appalachia for the college’s collaboration and service to GE Aviation through the customized training program.
A-B Tech currently trains GE employees to build aviation parts made of an innovative, proprietary ceramic matrix composite material.
The Community College of Appalachia is an association of 39 public community colleges from Mississippi to New York, serving the common interests of member colleges and their communities through programs and services responsive to the unique cultural, geographic, and economic development challenges facing the region.
When GE Aviation announced an expansion of its existing manufacturing production in Asheville in November 2013, A-B Tech committed to designing and developing a training program that would serve GE Aviation’s needs and requirements. This was made possible with support and funding from the North Carolina Community College System, the state’s NCWorks Customized Training Program, and the Golden LEAF Foundation.
The expansion provides a $175 million capital investment to the local tax base, retains 300 jobs, and creates 60 new jobs. GE Aviation announced that it expects this new technology, lighter and more durable than metal components, to revolutionize the airline industry.
The Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) Department at A-B Tech successfully secured nearly 5000 square feet on the Asheville campus to house equipment and provide training space.
In November 2014, a year after GE Aviation’s announcement, the EWD Department at A-B Tech opened the “Composites Training Center of Excellence,” the only facility of its kind in Western North Carolina. In addition to the possibility of working for GE Aviation, students completing the Composites Certification can find jobs in automotive, aviation, marine, technology, and entrepreneurial enterprises close to Asheville, and stretching to areas in Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia.
“The success of this program, which the award recognizes, is the work of Shelley White, our Vice President for Economic and Workforce Development/Continuing Education, as well as Kevin Kimrey and Andy McNeal of her team. I am very proud of what we have accomplished here and of the people who made it happen,” said A-B Tech President Dennis King.
About A-B Tech Community College
One of 58 colleges in the North Carolina Community College System, A-B Tech offers associate degrees, diplomas and certificates in more than 60 curriculum programs through its five academic divisions: Allied Health and Public Service Education, Arts and Sciences, Business and Hospitality Education, Emergency Services and Engineering and Applied Technology.
The Division of Economic and Workforce Development/Continuing Education offers opportunities for workforce partnerships, specific job training and retraining, as well as personal enrichment classes.
A-B Tech enrolls more than 25,000 curriculum and continuing education students in programs at its Asheville, Enka, Madison, South, Woodfin and Goodwill locations. For more information visit www.abtech.edu.
