Athens Technical College is responding to professional and industry workforce requirements by developing two new programs. The Veterinarian Assistant Program — which is strongly supported by the veterinarian community — will be offered online and available statewide. An associate degree program in nursing being developed with Gwinnett Medical Center and Gwinnett Technical College will serve Gwinnett County and surrounding areas.

Construction of a $6.1 million, 52,000 square-foot facility on the campus of Atlanta Technical College is underway. The building will feature a state-of-the-art conference center, a student-dining center, administrative offices and seminar rooms. Plans call for construction to be completed by December 2002.

Columbus Technical College is now delivering high-speed, high-tech training directly to the consumer in Chattahoochee, Harris, Muscogee, Quitman, and Stewart counties via the TechMobile, donated by BellSouth. Training offered includes information, engineering, and industrial technologies, as well as business and healthcare studies. The TechMobile also houses a mobile satellite receiver — one of only two in Georgia — providing onboard, high-speed Internet access.

The Atlanta branch of Palarco, an IBM business partner and systems integrator responsible for the delivery of business solutions to companies in the Southeast using IBM technology, funded the lease on an iSeries system for Gwinnett Technical College through IBM’s Partners in Education program last year. This helped Gwinnett Tech graduate more than 200 iSeries-knowledgeable students. Gwinnett-area companies such as Palarco, Rock-Tenn, and Inter American Data are eager to find employees with iSeries skills, and now Gwinnett Tech has the latest hardware and software in place.

Lanier Technical College has a new president, Dr. Mike Moye, formerly president of Moultrie Technical College. Lanier Tech’s business and industry partnerships, through both the Oakwood campus and the Forsyth campus, continue to increase and multiply. Recent new Quick Start agreements in the area include Suntory Water Group and Havertys. Suntory, second in the nation in providing bottled water for homes and offices, is adding 140 new jobs for its national call center in Flowery Branch. This center will provide customer service for Suntory’s operations in 40 states. Havertys, one of the nation’s largest furniture retailers, requires the training, to be provided by Quick Start through Lanier Tech, for 300 workers to be hired for the company’s 500,000 square-foot distribution center in Braselton.

Important events are being celebrated in the Sandersville Technical College service area with the announcement that St. Gobain, a French company with operations in Georgia, will occupy a facility in Hancock County this summer. Sandersville Tech also recently held a groundbreaking for the Jefferson County Education Center, which will open in the fall. Other news includes Swainsboro Technical College joining as a partner in the StRUT computer-recycling program. The StRUT program, coordinated by Sandersville Tech, teaches the A+ Certification using donated computers.

Southeastern Technical College’s ten-week program for ninth through twelfth grade Toombs County High School Hispanic students is called CHAMPS (Career Heightened Awareness and Motivation for Professional Success). Students explore career interests and map out plans for future success, participate in work-ethics training, and receive training in basic computer skills. Southeastern Tech has hired two bilingual instructors for CHAMPS.

Georgia’s technical colleges are proud of the members of the technical college boards of directors and the high level of community involvement and distinction they represent. Just the most recent example: Reverend I. L. Mullins of the Southwest Georgia Technical College Board was honored by the Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce with the Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Freida Hill, president of Southwest Georgia Tech, applauding Rev. Mullins’ accomplishments, said the award demonstrates that “We are not alone in benefiting from and appreciating this man’s gifts and leadership abilities.”

Swainsboro Technical College recently celebrated the groundbreaking for a 24,000 square-foot, $4 million technology building that will provide space for state-of-the-art training to meet the needs of local employers. The facility will be named for Larry J. (Butch) Parrish, State Representative, District 144.

Valdosta Technical College’s new Automotive Apprenticeship Program is officially underway. Owners, general managers, and service managers of car dealerships from the Lowndes, Berrien, Brooks, Cook, Echols and Lanier counties all joined with area school superintendents and high school automotive instructors to hear about the program and to celebrate the new coalition for education. Students participating in the program will attend Valdosta Tech one-half of the day and work in a car-dealership’s service department for the second half, receiving a paycheck as well as on-the-job training. The auto-dealer members of the collaborative have contributed $22,000 and will advertise jointly to recruit and raise public awareness of the advantages of working in today’s auto dealerships.

Governor Roy Barnes parti-cipated in dedication ceremonies for the Central Educational Center (CEC), a charter school founded on a partnership between West Central Technical College, the Coweta County School System, and the area business community. The CEC offers a variety of technical and technology classes, including dual-enrollment classes, which provide high-school students college credit toward a technical certificate of credit or an associate degree program at West Central Tech. In further dual-enrollment innovations, West Central Tech is offering EMT and Patient Care Assisting at its Douglas campus during the high-school morning block.

West Georgia Technical College in LaGrange has graduated the first 16 students from its Commercial Truck Driving program with a 100% pass rate and a 100% employment rate. West Georgia Tech’s recent Job-Shadowing Day drew over 60 local high-school students and twenty businesses.