STATESBORO, Ga. (WSAV) — Ogeechee Technical College (OTC) will soon be home to one of the first training centers built as an economic development project for a college within the Technical College Systems of Georgia (TCSG).
The Georgia Training Center for Industrial Operations is scheduled to open this September and will house multiple types of students.
“It’s a 38,000 square foot building which will train both credit and noncredit folks on the basic fundamentals of mechanical, electrical, hydraulics, the pneumatics, industrial maintenance, as well as high-end and automation such as sensors, controllers and instrumentation,” said Jan Moore, OTC vice president for economic development.
She added, “It will be unique to the state of Georgia, not only in its depth and breadth, but in what is going to be housed under here to be trained.”
Moore continued to say that teaching hours will nearly double when the building opens. Currently, the school is able to produce approximately 225,000 teaching hours; That number will be approximately 400,000 once the building is fully operational.
The building is estimated to cost approximately $26 million, but there have been multiple partners on the project.
“We have a tremendous partnership with the Development Authority of Bulloch County,” Moore said. “They donated the land that we’re standing upon, where this building is being built, and we also have a tremendous partnership with the Technical College System of Georgia; without their support and the support of our local legislators, this would only be a dream.”
In addition, Bulloch County created and donated an access road for construction to use, and funding for the project came from state bond sales.
“When you look at the impact the training in this building is going to have on this region, not only for people that live here and benefit from it, but people from around the state of Georgia that can come here and train as well, it’s not as much as you might think in the long term,” Moore said.
She added that Georgia Southern University estimates that the new training center will lead to an annual $15 million economic impact on the local region.
The economic impact will stem from the workers who train at the center, who will gain necessary skills to be employed at local manufacturers, including Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMMGA).
“If you look at the recent wage and benefit survey that was done by RISE, which is the Regional Industry Support Enterprise, you will see the number one job that industry in this eight-county region was concerned about filling is industrial maintenance,” Moore said. “That is specifically the jobs that will be trained within this building.”
She added, “With this building will come graduates locally that will command top dollar when they get out of this two-year program. It’s our hope that the industry will see that value. I’m sure that they will and become very involved with us, and provide internships and things of that nature where this program is concerned.”
Moore said she hopes this building can be a blueprint for others like it.
“I think it definitely will be a flagship building, and it’s my hope that it gets copied in different parts of the state,” she said. “This building in and of itself isn’t going to be able to serve all the training that is going to be required with the automation that’s coming along but hopefully we can set the example, and the state will see the importance and they will find other buildings in other regions of the state that can do the same thing that we’re doing.”
Alongside the new building this fall, OTC will introduce a new Industrial Operations Technology program. The two-year program will admit approximately 25 students during the Fall 2026 semester and will first see graduates at the conclusion of the Spring 2028 semester.
Students interested must first apply for admission to the college and declare their intentions to join this program. Following admission, an advisor will reach out to set up classes when at that time classes for the new program will be filled on a first-come first-serve basis.
For more information on how to apply to OTC, click here.
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