Like many areas of the country, Jackson County, Georgia, is seeing a rebirth in local manufacturing. Empower College and Career Center, a charter high school serving Jackson County students in grades 9-12, relies on curriculum from Intelitek to prepare students for these rewarding and in-demand careers.
Major employers in the Jackson County area include Toyota Industries and SK Battery, a global manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles with more than 3,000 employees and revenues of $2 billion. These companies and many others are looking for highly skilled workers with experience in mechatronics, automation, and advanced manufacturing.
Today’s manufacturing facilities are high-tech environments powered by robotics and automation. Workers must know how to program, operate, and troubleshoot the controllers and other equipment, and this requires an understanding of computer-driven electronics and mechanical systems.
Empower College and Career Center offers training in 26 career pathways focused on 11 different career clusters. The school has partnered with Lanier Technical College to create a mechatronics pathway that prepares students to work in modern manufacturing environments.
An effective Industry 4.0 curriculum requires opportunities for students to get hands-on training in the tools and techniques used in advanced manufacturing facilities. As part of the charter school’s mechatronics program, students receive hands-on training in using Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and operating industrial robotics with curriculum and equipment from Intelitek.
“We explored every single vendor that had mechatronics courses and provided the kind of training equipment we were looking for and asked for a proposal,” said John Uesseler, CEO of Empower College and Career Center. “What drew us to the Intelitek curriculum was the realness of it. You’re working with real electrical systems, motor controls, and it feels authentic.”
Demand for the program has far exceeded expectations. The planning committee hoped for 500 students during the 2021-22 school year. They had three times that number in the first year, and enrollment has continued to grow, reaching 2,018 students in 2023-24.
When they graduate, these students will be able to get jobs in advanced manufacturing right away or go on to college—whatever their ambition might be.
To learn more about the program and Intelitek’s involvement, click here
