Electrification and Transportation Center

Located in the heart of the Georgia International Business Park — the largest business park in the southeast — the LaGrange East Campus of West Georgia Technical College is currently home to two small 50-year-old facilities. Their current condition is essentially defunct and certainly inadequate to serve the high-tech programming demands of the workforce in the area or support existing and forthcoming economic development needs.

Partnerships with local industry officials, as well as new development in the area, have called on us to respond with a skillfully trained workforce. WGTC has been advocating for a state funded capital outlay project for three years now, to support electrification, logistics/transportation, and manufacturing on the East Campus in LaGrange. That project has not seen traction for implementation and, at this point, is now far too delayed to be of value with current urgent needs.

Recently, the College has been named one of three recipients of the Workforce Accelerator for Manufacturing (WAM) state funding. As a result, $6.5 million in renovation and equipment funding for programming specifically to address training in support of the electric vehicle (EV) industry manufacturing and aftermarket maintenance, is available. This award of state funding provides an incredible starting point for necessary facility transformation that, with additional industry support, can create economic impact through essential workforce development.

Electrification is upon us, and the industries associated with supporting the incredible influx of e-mobility development in Georgia, as the #1 state to do business, continues to grow exponentially. As a technical college, it is West Georgia Tech’s duty to meet high-demand industry needs with an adequately trained workforce.