The clear message from leadership at Central Georgia Technical College speaking to members of OneMacon, the city’s strategic community improvement project which held a monthly meeting this week on the College’s Macon campus, was this; addressing Macon’s workforce needs starts with technical education.
 
CGTC President, Dr. Ivan Allen, Andrea Griner, vice president of Economic Development, Dr. Amy Holloway, vice president of Academic Affairs, and Brenda Brown, vice president of Adult Education, each shared how CGTC’s mission bolsters the educational and workforce pillars of the OneMacon strategy. Several other members of the College’s leadership team were also in attendance.
 
“Ultimately, we fill the need of our 11-county service area. We do that through credit instruction with over 200 programs,” said Holloway, who along with her colleagues, took a “deep dive” into the College’s success over the last year.
 
“We are also very results-oriented. In keeping with our workforce development mission, we seek to place graduates in their field (of employment). We are also very proud to be the first and the only technical college in the state to graduate over 3,000 students in a single year. That is a tremendous accomplishment.”
 
Adding to the accomplishments of CGTC, is the increasing number of students served. The College served 33,232 individuals for FY 2017, and with over 8,000 this past fall, it accumulated its highest number of enrolled students in a semester since 2013 merger of Central Georgia Technical College and Middle Georgia Technical College. And with 1,381 of them being high school students in the College’s Dual Enrollment program, it is set to make the sort of lasting educational workforce impact sought by OneMacon partners.
 
In terms of its approach for growth in the Macon workforce, Griner said the Economic Development team at CGTC sails from a “broader perspective” of educational “moving pieces,” or active community resources that come together in partnership with OneMacon to involve themselves in the future of the city. That future, she said is bright. With new businesses like Irving Consumer Products, and new projects arising for Graphic Packaging International, on the horizon, CGTC is primed to meet the training demands and educational requisites in the heart of Georgia development. CGTC was involved in both of these recent recruitment efforts.
 
“The foundation is academic credentials, adult education,” Griner said. “Where we step in is to provide workforce training in support of industrial recruitment efforts.”
 
2017 Figures from Economic Development show a total of 334 companies received customized training, totaling 1,319,499 training hours, the most of any institution in the Technical College System of Georgia. Those hours were spread among many of Macon’s leading employers, including small business, the Department of Defense, Aspen Products, Kumho, GEICO, and others.
 
CGTC’s Adult Education Division took steps toward combating what many in attendance viewed as a central issue to improving the area’s workforce; literacy. Through its literacy education initiatives, GED program, English as a Second Language acquisition program, and many job-readiness classes, CGTC is bringing up to par, a population increasingly in need of educational resources. Likely to have the most direct impact on educating the future of Macon’s workforce is the Division’s Accelerating Opportunity dual enrollment program. Through AO, qualified students currently pursuing their GED are able to sign up and enroll with the College in credit instruction courses to pursue a diploma or technical certificate of credit while completing their GED.
 
CGTC partners with OneMacon in the education component of its community and economic development strategy. One Macon is a collaborative effort for daily action that seeks to strengthen area schools, boost employment opportunities, and quality of life. The organization partners with industries, educational institutions, arts alliances, and various for and non-profit organizations city-wide.
 
Attendees also toured the state-of-the-art Charles H. Jones Building on the Macon campus which houses the Industrial Maintenance and Engineering Technology programs in addition to workspaces for economic development partners.
 
A Facebook Live video of the presentation was uploaded by OneMacon. It is available on their feed here: https://www.facebook.com/onemaconga/.