
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 1, 1995                   TAG: 9509010066
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

COLLEGES EXPAND TO HIGH TECH

Five Southwest Virginia community colleges together have created an advanced manufacturing technology center to train employees of new and existing high-tech industries in the region.

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said at a meeting of Wythe County business leaders Thursday that a $235,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant has been added to $1 million in federal funding to equip the project. The state has added another $200,000.

Boucher said the idea came from Wytheville Community College President William Snyder. The concept was endorsed at a meeting of the presidents of Wytheville, New River, Southwest Virginia, Virginia Highlands and Mountain Empire community colleges. Virginia Tech provided technical assistance.

Students from other community colleges and industry employees initially will be trained at the Wytheville college. In the future, they will be able to take the training closer to home through an interactive, fiber-optic network connecting all 83 of the colleges and high schools in the 9th Congressional District. Twenty-one of those institutions now are connected to the network, and 26 will be operational by January, Boucher said. The rest should be added within three years.

Boucher said the center will provide manufacturers the kind of assistance that extension services have provided farmers, sending representatives to industry sites to survey equipment needs and suggest upgrades. Manufacturers will be able to try various kinds of equipment before deciding what to buy, he said.

The center should help the district attract new technically oriented companies, he said. "That will give us a leg up in economic development."

"The important thing is that we are really out to modernize work force education and training," said Jay Tice, the center's director.

John Turbyfill, assistant plant manager of Vaughan Furniture Co. in Galax and one of 15 industry representatives on the center's board, said change is scary but must be embraced by regions that want to attract today's high-tech jobs. "Through this center," he said, "I feel very confident that we'll have the ability to do that."

by CNB