"What we're launching here today will further solidify Illinois' status as a hub for global manufacturing, helping us attract and retain businesses that need topflight talent. That is our vision, and SWIC is a leader in that endeavor," Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at the ceremony.
Construction of the academy on the northwest corner of the Belleville campus began in September 2022. Now outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, the facility will officially open its doors in the upcoming semester to provide students with more training opportunities in the growing manufacturing sector.
According to a recent Deloitte study, U.S. manufacturing could need as many as 3.8 million new employees by 2033 as investment drives the sector's growth, but half of those jobs could go unfilled if workforce challenges aren't addressed.
"SWIC and other community colleges are the dynamic institutions that are capable of building the workforce of the future, creating opportunities for hardworking Illinoisans and maximizing economic growth potential for the entire state, and particularly for this region," Pritzker said.
In 2021, SWIC was one of the two downstate community colleges to each receive a $7.5 million grant through the Rebuild Illinois capital improvement plan to establish a manufacturing training academy.
When the college got the grant, it had a certificate program in precision machining technology, Dean of Technical Education and Workforce Development Mark Bosworth said. With the grant and new facility, SWIC has added three advanced certificates: additive manufacturing, tool and die mold-making, and advanced automation/multi-axis CNC, which stands for computer numerical control and is commonly used in the machining of plastic or metal parts.
"We still offer the original certificate of precision machining technology, but then we wanted to add more advanced stuff, because that's where manufacturing is going," Bosworth said. "We're touting this as probably one of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the country."
"I've been to a lot of community college and technical centers, technical colleges around the nation, and I really believe this. No other college has these two pieces of equipment, and all the robots that our students are gonna learn," Bosworth said, motioning to a punch press and an injection molding machine.
In addition to the $7.5 million grant from the state, the $20 million, 33,000-square-foot academy is being paid for with $8.5 million from SWIC, a $2.5 million federal grant and $1.5 million in naming rights from the Haas Certification Program.
At the ribbon-cutting, state Sen. Christopher Belt, D-Swansea, said "there was a lot of consternation" about the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois plan when it was passed in 2019, but without that bill, SWIC's new manufacturing training academy wouldn't be here.
"Part of having a vision is having some faith, and you got to step out on them," Belt said.
Belleville District 201 Superintendent Brian Mentzer said he's excited about the opportunities high school students will have at the academy.
"It does show the vision of the college, because they've got a really strong, solid understanding of what the business industry market is, and they've been able to develop programming and infrastructure in order to support that," he said.
District 201 is currently building an annex to its Center for Academic and Vocational Excellence — or CAVE — that will allow it to expand programming, including for automation, manufacturing and robotics.
"We want to be able to provide entry-level, dual-credit opportunities for kids in our programs to operate machines that are in the same family as these. They're not nearly as sophisticated. It's really a design to get kids equipped to come here," Mentzer said.
"This is where the world is moving."
©2024 the Belleville News-Democrat (Belleville, Ill.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
