Center for Advanced Manufacturing Wins National Award

Piedmont Technical College’s Continuing Education and Economic Development division recently won the 2014 National Exemplary Program Award from the National Council for Continuing Education & Training (NCCET) for its work at the Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) in Laurens County.

The honor will be presented during the NCCET’s annual awards ceremony in Denver in September. The award recognizes impact on need, innovation, sustainability and replicability.

“We are pleased that the NCCET recognized the work in the creation of the CAM to benefit the businesses in Laurens County,” said Rusty Denning, associate vice president of Continuing Education at PTC.

The facility came about thanks to a partnership between Piedmont Technical College, the PTC Foundation, county and city governments, Laurens County Economic Development Corporation and local industry. The facility was initially planned to provide readySC, a division of the South Carolina Technical College System, with a dedicated space to meet ZF Group’s initial training needs in collaboration with PTC industrial faculty. However, industry leaders throughout the county saw the center’s potential to benefit their operations.

The CAM houses CNC labs, CMM labs and classrooms which will benefit ZF as well as other industries and the residents of Laurens County for years to come. The CAM partnership met the needs of ZF while providing the local workforce with a means for upgrading their work skills with relevant technology-based training.

“We are excited by this award and to be able to present at the conference,” said Denning. “This gives us the opportunity to showcase to other continuing education organizations how we partner with our curriculum counterparts at the college and make it work.”