TIFTON — A new mechatronics/automation program planned by Moultrie Technical College will produce highly skilled technicians that are needed to operate and repair the state-of-the-art equipment being used by today’s manufacturers. Preparing people for the changing workforce is one way communities can benefit economically, proponents of the program said Tuesday at the Remote Automation Management Project program launch held at MTC.

David Heilesen, post-secondary consultant for Southern Educational Systems, said that the program will provide the education to eight high schools in the state through dual enrollment and create a “seamless education” that will provide a more educated workforce and show industries considering locating to the community that there is a link between the high school and technical college that produces the employees the industries need.

“You are really going to be able to attract industry,” Heilesen said.

MTC and its Tifton Campus will use the RAMP program to introduce high school students to industrial automation. The pilot project is the first of its kind in the Southeastern region of the United States. MTC is the only technical college in the state with the technology and only the second technical college in the nation to use it as a teaching module. Tift County High School is one of the first eight locations selected for the pilot program. Seven others in Georgia will be added with MTC’s Industrial Systems Technology Department providing technical training to secondary technology instructors and secondary students to ensure a seamless transition from high school to technical colleges. Students will receive dual enrollment credit, which is high school and college credits earned simultaneously.

The program 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.

Heatcraft Refrigeration Products, which recently consolidated all of its North American operations in Tifton, is set to expand its facility to 610,000 square feet and add another 300 employees here by the end of the year. Heatcraft representatives said Tuesday that one of the reasons the decision was made to locate its facilities here was MTC and other colleges and those colleges’ ability to train the workforce they needed.

The program was created at Alexandria Technical College in Minnesota in 2005 and began with a curiosity about regional manufacturing economics. The region surrounding the college there is surrounded by a high number of specialty packaging machine manufacturers. The machines built by those manufacturers incorporate advanced mechatronics technology, are highly automated and are shipped to users throughout the country and the world. The machines are technologically advanced and their management requires the availability of highly skilled technicians. The Center for Automation and Motion Control at ATC maintains a state-of-the-art mechatronics curriculum and laboratory for training this type of technician.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 229-382-4321.