TechReadySC™, a collaboration of the five Upstate technical and community colleges and the SC Technical College System office is sponsoring a presentation of a regional initiative in workforce competition.

• Welcome
  Wendy Walden
  Chair, TechReadySC™ Marketing Committee
• Special Remarks
  Bobby M. Hitt, III
  Department Manager, Public Affairs
  BMW Manufacturing Corporation
• TechReadySC™ Overview
  Cynthia Eason
  Chair, TechReadySC™ Board
•  Mechatronics Video Presentation
•  Mechatronics Overview
  Dan Davidchik
  Mechatronics Project Coordinator
  Central Community College - Nebraska
• Innovative Collaboration
  David Beard
  Vice Chair, AdvanceSC Board
• Questions & Answers
  Dr. Neil Lark
  Executive Director, TechReadySC™

The presentation will begin at 10 am at the BMW Zentrum at exit 60 (Hwy 101) on I-85 south of Spartanburg. To make a reservation for the presentation,

• call Alisha at 864-286-2300
• email aknauff as upstatealliance.com

Mechatronics systems combine networking and computer integration of existing technology with low cost automation, intelligent sensors, and electronic closed loop controls.  Apprentices learn how the entire system works, instead of learning each component separately, which makes them better troubleshooters. Mechatronics addresses not only technical competence, but also personal and team competencies.

The five college consortium, originally called the Upstate Alliance, but now TechReadySC™, is working on a grant to launch a new associate degree in Mechatronics for Fall 2008, to prepare workers for anticpated new jobs in modern automated manufacturing. The new degree would integrate continuing education department courses with curriculum courses, and would set up articulation agreements with each college so that credits earned at one of the Tech Ready SC colleges would be transferable to another. TechReadySC™ includes Spartanburg Community College, Greenville Technical College, York Technical College, Tri-County Technical College, and Piedmont Technical College. Lottery tuition assistance is available for credit classes, making the training more affordable and attractive to students who are already working.

Beverly Deal from Upstate Career Source explained the apprenticeship registration process, explaining the regulations and recordkeeping that are requred.  Several companies in the area have already registered apprenticeship programs to train their employeees to work at a higher level of independence and productivity: Timken, LSP, Haemonetics, and Sonoco in Union County.

The Grant requires that each sponsor company register an apprenticeship with a letter of commitment, and provide a 30% funding match, which can be the wages of the workers in the apprenticeship. Tax credits are available up to $1,000 for each registered apprentice employed for at least seven months during each year of an apprenticeship program for up to four years.  Companies with registered apprenticeships can also recoup some of the cost of instruction, training and wages if they meet WIA (Workforce Investment Area) eligibility requirements. The benefits of apprenticeships are better retention, increased production, higher morale, and increased skill/earning ability of all employees.

A new apprenticeship class started yesterday (April 15) for plant maintenance, which includes training on mechatronics systems, Festo Mechatronics units, KUKA robots, and Siemens and Allen Bradley PLCs.

Each cabinet can be set up to do a different function, such as setting parts into the system, checking for quality, assembling parts, conveying to another cabinet, and then sorting by color before being offloaded and stored.

The great thing about this system is that a manufacturing process can be prototyped and all the bugs worked out before a company even sets up its manufacturing shop.

Students learn how to design an entire process, thinking wholistically about what has to happen to the parts for them to be assembled correctly. They apply the theoretical skills in mechanics and electricity to program the controllers and make sure that everything moves along smoothly. This also offers hands on troubleshooting skills when the program is not quite right.

Spartanburg Community College Corporate & Community Education has a set of FESTO Mechtronics cabinets installed in the BMW Center at the Tyger River Campus, and a second set that is being made ready for the apprenticeship classes at the Career Technical Vocational Center in Union.  Grant funding from Advance SC and TechReadySC™ has made the purchase of this modern training equipment possible.