PJC receives JET grant for manufacturing training
Published or Revised May 22, 2012
Paris Junior College is receiving $314,520 from the Texas Comptroller Susan Combs for a Maintenance and Repair Technician program. The funds are part of more than $3 million of the Jobs and Education for Texans (JET) program and will be used to purchase equipment to ready students to enter the workforce. PJC will use the grant funds to purchase training equipment for electro-mechanical technicians, as well as advanced training and continuing education for maintenance and service technicians. This equipment will be used in the Manufacturing Academy, providing a regional training and demonstration facility. The end goal is to cultivate a local workforce that will serve the needs of business and industries considering this region for start-up or relocation. "This grant provides us with funds to purchase some of the equipment we need to provide a manufacturing academy," said PJC President Dr. Pamela Anglin. "The manufacturing academy equipment will be available to all levels of students – from high school students to PJC students enrolled in the electro-mechanical program as well as currently employed individuals needing customized industry training. We already have a strong manufacturing base here and this grant will allow us to continue providing a cutting-edge, competitive workforce." PJC's service area has a large concentration of food, dairy, paper products and distribution facilities. They are supported by "continuous process" technology, allowing raw materials to be delivered to one end of the facility and a finished product delivered to a shipping area with little or no human interaction. This requires efficient cooperation between sensors, conveyors, motors, variable frequency drives, radio frequency identification and programmable logic controllers. "Our area technicians must have the know-how to install, maintain, program and repair this kind of equipment," said Dr. Anglin. "This grant will allow our training labs to provide a close facsimile of true production lines and the new technology driving them."