Magazine
Economic Development: Manufacturing
Center for Manufacturing Technology Excellence
The Center for Manufacturing Technology Excellence (CMTE) is a major new initiative of the partnership for industry and education to link a research university, a regional university, a technical training center, several regional and local economic development organizations, and the state economic and community development agency. This effort is designed to improve the East Mississippi region’s ability to provide highly skilled, technically proficient workers. Additionally, the center will enhance the delivery of technology transfer services, assisting new and existing industries with improved productivity. Located on the Golden Triangle Campus of East Mississippi Community College, CMTE began operation in the fall of 1998.
To be competitive in attracting new industries and in retaining existing industries, our workforce must be capable of thinking critically and understanding relationships between devices, systems, and tasks. The Center for Manufacturing Technology Excellence will assist in building a technically competent workforce of new and existing workers by providing an environment in which needed skills can be taught.
- CMTE provides "workplace specific training" in order for workers to learn to use evolving technology for an information-based manufacturing age.
- CMTE is designed to enhance East Mississippi Community College's programs and services to the area’s workforce. This includes Skill Tech, which works with business and industry clients to determine and deliver comprehensive, customized workforce education and teams with CMTE staff to provide workplace specific training.
- CMTE provides high bay training space and other laboratories that can be dedicated to specific projects, configured for training tasks and remain fixed for the entire training time.
Customized Training
Mississippi's top-notch community college system and the Office of Vocational-Technical and Adult Education assists industries in developing valuable, customized training programs. New and expanding businesses receive full cooperation and assistance in training, from basic skills training to the most advanced robotic training.
The training is delivered through the state's community college and high school vocational centers. Industrial Training Coordinators in the community college districts assist new and expanding industry in recruiting new employees, coordinating training programs with the employer, and training applicants to meet standards set by the employer. Training can be implemented in the school's facilities using state furnished equipment, if available, or on the plant site using the industry's equipment and materials.
How Start-Up Training Works
Design Your Program:
Once you make a decision to locate or expand a plant in Oktibbeha County, an industrial training team will consult with you. They assist in determining your employee needs, job requirements, and start-up schedule.
Set Up Training Facilities:
Training facilities are then set up in either a vocational-technical center (East Mississippi Community College or Millsaps Vocational Center), a mobile unit, or at a plant site. Facilities used will be equipped with machinery agreeable to the company. Access to modern technology and equipment is available through the entire network of state vocational-technical centers.
Train to Specifications:
A two-phase training sequence of instruction and on-the-job training is usually recommended. Pre-employment instruction at the training facility or plant site gives company approved applicants a predetermined proficiency test so they can move directly onto the newly set-up production line for on-the-job training. It also provides the opportunity for effective pre-screening and selection of prospective employees.