The Mount Pleasant Economic Development Corporation (MPEDC) has supported grant applications with a pledge of matching funds to the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). The Texas Workforce Commission has conducted three rounds of grants designed to encourage additional career training capacity in the State. The program allows a Workforce Area to submit a grant application for a maximum of $75,000. The application requires matching funds from a Community Type A Corporation.
In the past two years, the MPEDC support of grants from TWC has enabled the school to add CNC training and robotics training to their curriculum. CNC refers to computer numeric controlled machining which can be two dimensional or three dimensional. The robotics control curriculum will teach students how robotics are used in manufacturing today and allow them to learn both the programming of these robotic arms and the maintenance of this type machinery. In selecting CNC and robotics equipment is was important to the college to find controlling software which was actually used in industry today and both these new curriculums meet that goal.
In a recent tour conducted by Dr. Kevin Rose and Dr. Brad Johnson, the MPEDC Board was able to see the equipment they had helped to purchase and learn more about current offerings at the ITTC.
The Northeast Texas Workforce Solutions Office has four potential participant corporations and the MPEDC has agreed to participate in all three rounds with the goal of bringing additional industrial training to the Industrial Technology Training Center in Mount Pleasant ITTC). MPEDC was one of three original partners who came together to create and fund the Industrial Technology Training Center. The original partners were Northeast Texas Community College (NTCC), Mount Pleasant Independent School District (MPISD) and the MPEDC. Initial monies were used to purchase the building suitable to house the training facility and the training modules designed to train students in Industrial Maintenance. MPISD located their existing electrical trades program to the facility as well. The first classes held at the ITTC was in 2011 and served 20 adult students. Since that time the program has grown steadily to over 200 high-school and adult students.
