Moultrie Tech to RAMP-Up Job Training through $1.75 Million DOL Grant
Moultrie Technical College (MTC) will soon expand its Remote Automation Management Project (RAMP) in Tifton to include more than 800 trainees, thanks to a three-year, $1,756,677 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
The DOL recently awarded nearly $123 million to 68 community colleges and community-based institutions that competed successfully from among 274 applications received in response to a competition announced in October.
 |
Introduced by President Bush in his 2004 "State of the Union" address, the Community-Based Job Training Grant Initiative improves the ability of community and technical colleges to provide their regional workers with the skills needed to enter growing industries.
The South Georgia Community-Based Job Training Consortium proposes to use Moultrie Tech’s existing RAMP to provide training to current workers, dislocated workers, high school students and disadvantaged African-American youth in the four-county service area of Colquitt, Tift, Turner and Worth. The RAMP will focus on providing training required to succeed and advance in two high-growth and high-demand industries – advanced manufacturing and health care – where demand for qualified workers outstrips the supply.
Moultrie Tech currently utilizes the RAMP to introduce high school students to the ever-changing world of industrial automation. This pilot project, launched in September 2008 and headed by MTC Tifton Campus Industrial Systems Technology instructor Chris Estes, is the first of its kind in the Southeastern region of the United States. Moultrie Tech is the only technical college in the state of Georgia with this technology and only the second technical college in the nation to use it as a teaching module. High school students receive dual enrollment credit, which is high school and technical college credit earned simultaneously.
 |
Through the U.S. DOL grant, the program will expand to include seven RAMP sites established to train 750 participants in preparation for degree, diploma and certificate programs in Advanced Manufacturing and Health Care. Four new Industrial Systems Technology certificate programs will be developed. Two high schools will become certified CTAE (Career, Technology and Agricultural Education) sites. In addition to the 750 participants, training will be provided to CTAE Directors in Moultrie Tech’s four-county service area; seven additional high school CTAE Directors for dissemination of the model; ten Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) instructors; and 25 Georgia high school technology instructors.
According to Dr. Shawn Utley, MTC vice president of economic development, the increase in skilled workers will enable them to receive higher wages, and, in turn, advance the region’s economic competitiveness and ability to retain current industry and attract new industry. Moultrie Tech will lead a consortium of partners in implementation, evaluation and dissemination of the project.
The RAMP was created at Alexandria Technical College in Minnesota in 2005 and began with a curiosity about regional manufacturing economics. The machines built by these manufacturers incorporate advanced mechatronics technology, are highly automated and are shipped to end-users located throughout the country and the world. Due to the technologically advanced nature of these machines, their management requires the availability of highly skilled technicians.
More notable for how it teaches than for what it teaches, the RAMP platform can be used to deliver interactive, real-time instruction in any discipline from 3D design to GPS mapping software. Participants are taught how to design, integrate and manage automated production systems. RAMP combines common, off-the-shelf information technologies such as streaming video, Voice-over IP and virtual machine for controls and automation instruction.
For more information about the RAMP initiative, contact Dr. Shawn Utley or instructor Chris Estes at (229) 391-2600.
