With an array of programs and disciplines already available, Savannah Technical College’s Liberty campus welcomed prospective students last week — with open arms and a lot more.
STC held its Rock-NRollment initiative across its campuses, getting students signed up for classes and showing them to how get financial aid, and meet with advisors.
At the burgeoning Liberty campus, covering 60 acres and serving several hundred students each semester, pupils can choose from a gamut of courses and programs, ranging from accounting to automotive technology to air conditioning to business management, master barber, cosmetologist, comm systems technology — with more in between.
“The pendulum has really shifted back toward technical education,” said Robert Grant, the STC vice president for community and college relations. “Our tag line is ‘skills pay the bills.’ The demand is high. We have had hundreds of people coming through the door.”
The Rock-n-Rollment is designed to fast-track students into the courses they want and to courses that best suit them, along with getting any financial aid needed arranged.
About one-third of STC’s Liberty campus students are military or veteran or connected to the military or a veteran. STC has the Heroes MAKE America initiative that fast-tracks career pathways for service members, veterans and military spouses. For instance, in just eight weeks, they can earn certification in logistics or in automation and robotics and in a four-week course, they can earn a certification in airframe and powerplant, or A&P as it’s known at STC.
“We have a lot of military who come to us and fast track in automaton and robotics,” Grant said. “It’s a great program. Once they transition out, they’re ready to go work at Hyundai or Gulfstream or JCB.”
Some of the courses at STC are in such high demand there is a waiting list, including dental hygiene, and under industrial maintenance instructor Alexander Elliott, students are learning about PLCs, or programmable logic controllers.
“We’re trying to expand the programs we know are high demand,” Grant said.
In Elliott’s space, students learn to power and program the controls that control the manufacturing environment. Learning the PLCs is a two-year course, but graduates face any number of willing employers for their skill set. Some industries, Grant noted, are paying starting salaries at a minimum of $100,000 a year for those getting a diploma in the course.
“They are everywhere,” Grant said. “You have a traffic light, they have PLCs. The student who can learn how to change out a PLC is golden.”
It also can be part of a high school student’s dual enrollment curriculum, giving them the entry way into a career just as soon as they finish high school.
“A high school dual enrollment can be here, graduate from here and high school the same day and have this in their back pocket,” Grant said.
It’s a hands-on discipline, as is the HVAC lab next to it. STC students are learning everything that goes into HVAC, Grant said, from building duct work to wiring. There is a need for knowledge of HVAC and refrigeration, especially with the ports and the amount of frozen goods that are exported, Grant noted.
STC’s aviation training center at the Crossroads campus is getting a $1.3 million appropriation from the state for design of an expansion that will nearly double the space. It’s there were students learn to take apart airplanes and put them back together, Grant said, under a partnership with Gulfstream. STC also is teaching luxury upholstery and high-end trim work, which not only can be done for private jets but also has a home with yacht makers.
Local companies, with new incentives, also are offering apprenticeships. Plus, Savannah Tech also has scholarships available and gives out about $250,000 a year in scholarships. The return on investment, at $107 a credit hour, can be significant, according to Grant.
“And all you have to do is show up on August 15 and talk to an advisor who can make sure you are in the right major,” he said. “People believe in us and want students to succeed.”
