Remote Automation Management Project (RAMP)
RAMP High School Instructional Model promo video
RAMP Mobile Trainer promo video
RAMP Mobile Diagnostics promo video
Moultrie Tech has expanded 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 South Georgia Community Based Job Training Consortium utilizes MTC’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.
 |
MTC currently utilizes the RAMP to introduce high school students to the everchanging world of industrial automation. This pilot project, launched September 2008 and headed by MTC Tifton Campus RAMP Administrator Chris Estes, is the first of its kind in the Southeastern region of the United States. Moultrie Tech is the first 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 are also being developed. In addition to the 750 participants, training will be provided to CTAE Director’s in MTC’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.
 |
The main goal of the grant is to mold the participants into skilled workers, therefore, enabling 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 leads 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 that 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 controls and automation instruction.
For more information about the RAMP Program, please contact RAMP Project Manager, Kelly Weeks at (229) 391-2635.
