[Above: The Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) building at the CU-ICAR campus.]
Greenville Technical College announced this week that its new Center for Manufacturing Innovation enterprise campus will be located at the Millennium Campus adjacent to the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR).
Greenville Tech president Keith Miller and Clemson University president James Barker signed a cooperation agreement between the two schools on Tuesday.
Over the last few months, Greenville Tech had considered nearly a dozen sites for its new 30-acre campus, which will focus on advanced manufacturing. the ICAR spot fit, said Miller.
Since before the recession, Miller said he has been hearing from manufacturers about a shortage of trained employees. The enterprise campus will fill a need for advanced manufacturing workers, with capacity for companies to manufacture prototypes and accelerator/incubator space for small light manufacturing companies, he said.
According to Greenville Tech, the campus will offer “dual credit programs in partnership with Greenville County Schools, bridge programs that allow a student to move from associate degree to bachelor’s degree, and workforce training and certificate programs that increase the qualifications of manufacturing employees.”
Greenville County Council approved a $25 million bond in September to help fund the campus. The bond will be funded with existing millage. Miller said he would also be pursuing state funding, along with contributions from local industries.
Miller said the campus’ proximity to the new Penny Fisher School is part of the plan to further encourage students in the K-12 system to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers. He called it a new model for education across grades.
“It’s going to be a restructuring of services,” he said. “It’s going to be Greenville Tech and Clemson University working together, using the same lab or faculty using the same equipment. The K-12 component will be within that dynamic.”
Clemson University president James Barker echoed Miller’s remarks, saying, “We need to collaborate more and compete less.” He highlighted that much economic development is focused on bringing jobs to the state, but there is also an issue of vacant positions in manufacturing.
“There is a shortage of technically skilled employees at all levels,” Barker said. “It’s not necessarily recruiting and creating good jobs in manufacturing, it’s filling the knowledge-based jobs and manufacturing jobs that have already been created. And if that’s the problem, then education is the solution.”
Mike McCormick of Bosch Rexroth, a company that employs Greenville Tech graduates, said that talk about getting students into the STEM curriculum is not working and there is a “real crisis” in recruiting students.
“They’re not constructing a building, but a bridge between all the educational silos in our country,” said McCormick.
The purchase price for the land was $75,000 per acre (approximately $2.3 million) for the 29-30-acre property, said Greenville Tech’s vice president for finance, Jacqueline DiMaggio.
The campus must still go through two state approval processes in early December and then the school will close on the land, DiMaggio said. Tech will then solicit bids for architects and engineers. She anticipates a groundbreaking for the campus in late summer or early fall 2014.
