Vance Educators Participate in AMSTA Sessions


AMSTA 4Career and Technical Education teachers in local high schools took part in three days of “AMSTA Summer Cruising” workshops June 14 and 16-17.

The teachers are shown with local business leaders who include, seated starting at third from left, John Barnes of the Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce, Monica Satterwhite of the N.C. Works Career Center, and Ben Foti of Kerr-Tar Workforce Development.

The teachers were in Vance County on the first day and then joined educators from three other counties for the other two days in Granville County and Raleigh. In addition to participating in the panel discussion led by Barnes, Satterwhite and Foti, the teachers toured the Ardagh Group glass making plant and the Walmart Distribution Center, both located in Vance County, on the first day. For their second day, the local teachers joined educators from Granville, Warren and Franklin counties at Granville Central High School for additional discussions with business leaders. They also toured the Novozymes Inc. plant in Granville County. On their final day, educators visited several sites on the Centennial Campus of N.C. State University in Raleigh. Their visits included a tour of the James B. Hunt Library, a state-of-the-art facility known nationally for its great innovations.

AMSTA is an acronym for the Advanced Manufacturing Skills Training Alliance.

Vance County Schools is a part of AMSTA through a grant program with Vance-Granville Community College. The school system received grant funding, as did public schools in Granville, Warren and Franklin counties, to establish advanced manufacturing classrooms in local high schools. The school system will work with Vance-Granville Community College during the 2016-2017 school year and the next four years to help prepare students for work in advanced manufacturing fields. A focus of AMSTA is to increase advanced manufacturing professional development opportunities for teachers and internship opportunities for students.