Gateway Community and Technical College welcomed Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet Secretary Hal Heiner and Rick Jordan, Director of Special Projects for the Kentucky Education and Workforce Cabinet to the Boone Campus today.
Secretary Heiner toured the Integrated Manufacturing Center at the Boone Campus and learned more about Advanced Manufacturing opportunities at Gateway, in particular the Enhanced Operator Program. This program provides broad-based knowledge instruction on skills which enable an advanced manufacturing employee to successfully trouble-shoot and cure problems with systems and processes beyond the scope of typical “machine operators.”
“We were excited to show Secretary Heiner an innovative sampling of the work being done here at Gateway,” said Dr. Keith Bird, Gateway Interim President/CEO. “The Enhanced Operator Program is a model of industry-led curriculum and program development that can go to scale anywhere in the state.”
Gateway staff and faculty discussed the collaborative relationships that Gateway has developed with industry partners that lead to the development of programs and curriculum, which meet the needs of students and industry. During his visit, he also had the opportunity to talk to students about why they chose Gateway.