The East Tennessee Development District (ETDD) has partnered with Tennessee College of Applied Technology, Knoxville (TCAT-K); six regional school districts including Knox, Alcoa, Oak Ridge, Blount, Anderson County, and Maryville; and eleven employer partners including ALCOA, Cherokee Millwright, DENSO Manufacturing, BHS Corrugated, Gerdau Steel, Interstate Mechanical, Shoffner Kalthoff, SL Tennessee, Aisin, Eagle Bend/Magna, and 3M; to be included in the most recent Tennessee Labor Education Alignment Program grant (LEAP 2.0).
Oak Ridge High School will receive $46,000.00 to purchase Amatrol tabletop trainers for electronic, pneumatic, and hydraulic systems. Successful students will demonstrate mastery of skills with these system components through Certified Production Technician certification. Dual enrollment courses with TCAT Knoxville will begin in Fall of 2017. The objective of LEAP is to āeliminate skills gaps across the state in a proactive, data-driven, and coordinated manner by encouraging collaboration across education and industry and by utilizing regional workforce data to identify and then fill skills gaps across the state.ā
The ETDD application brings together secondary partners, postsecondary partners, regional industry, and economic development representatives to address the ever-growing skills gap in East Tennessee. It takes a three-prong approach to expanding training capacity. Advanced manufacturing dual enrollment courses are started at the high schools; work-based learning provides internships and co-op experiences to get students into the skills pipeline earlier; and local industries support the work-based learning. The grant allows TCAT Knoxville to expand capacity by purchasing equipment to be installed at each of the high schools as well as at a brand new campus facility in Anderson County. This expansion will allow for more post-secondary students to enroll in TCAT courses sooner, thus entering the workforce earlier, prepared with needed skills.
