Celebrating Career Opportunities Created Through Industry Partnerships
County College of Morris (CCM) has scheduled a virtual grand opening for its Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Center (AMEC) to celebrate the facility’s role in addressing the needs of industry.
The celebration takes place Tuesday, December 8, at 11 a.m. as a YouTube streamed presentation at www.ccm.edu/amec/. Viewers will be able to obtain an inside view of the state-of-the-art facility constructed to address industry’s growing demand for skilled professionals and access to advanced training and conferencing abilities.
In addition to housing numerous labs with the latest equipment and machinery, AMEC includes a high-tech conference room where industry officials and their employees can meet virtually with their national and global partners. It also will allow CCM to develop new in-demand programs such as robotics. The $11 million 31,500-square foot facility was constructed with state, county and private funding.
The virtual grand opening will feature remarks from CCM President Anthony J. Iacono, Astronaut Clay Anderson and state, county, community and business leaders.
Along with offering education and training in a number of degree and certificate programs, AMEC will provide industry with opportunities to update the skills of their current employees. The building was constructed in response to several fact-finding sessions the college held with industry to determine how CCM could best meet its needs. The overriding request was for the provision of a pipeline of skilled and talented employees.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that over the next decade advanced manufacturing will need to fill 3.4 million jobs with the majority of those positions being related to the pending retirement of baby boomers. Along with good job prospects, the field pays well with an average annual salary of $76,000.
Included among the students utilizing AMEC are the apprentices CCM is training as part of a $4 million CareerAdvance USA grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. CCM was awarded that grant to lead a consortium of New Jersey community colleges to create successful apprenticeship models in advanced manufacturing.
High school students taking part in the college’s Engineering Technology share time program with the Morris County Vocational School District also will train on equipment in the facility. While at CCM, those students also participate in the High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware program that allows them to produce parts for the International Space Station.
To learn more about CCM’s Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering programs, go to http://bit.ly/AMEatCCM/.