Grant Will Help Students with Industrial Maintenance Skills

Pulaski County Community Development Commission Executive Director Nathan Origer told the county commissioners last night that the county is the recipient of an $82,355 Region 1 Works Council for a Career and Technical Education (CTE) innovative-curriculum grant.

Origer said the grant will fund a Pulaski County Repair and Maintenance Technology (RAM-Tech) program at West Central High School to give students the skills they need to be successful in an industrial setting.

“This is going to be a multi-year program in industrial repair and maintenance technologies. We’ll be looking at basics of measurements and print reading and getting into basic electricity, electric machines, electric fabrication, fabrications, pneumatics and hydraulics, and programmable controllers of various sorts,” explained Origer.

He stated that this is one of the highest ranking needs that the local industries reported.

The program will give students a certification.

“As we develop the curriculum, it is going to be designed to, with local employers’ specific needs in consideration, provide some sort of certification and dual credits – possibly with Ivy Tech or both. There’s still a lot of specifics to work out.”

Origer, West Central School Superintendent Don Street, West Central High School Principal Patrick Culp, two students, and the Pulaski Alliance for Community Education (PACE) representative Charles Mellon went to Indianapolis on Feb. 10 to receive the grant announced by Governor Mike Pence.

The commissioners approved a request by Origer to request $12,000 as an additional appropriation for the local match for the grant. The request will be made to the county council. Other money was given to toward the rest of the match by local manufacturers and in-kind donations.