2024 DMCA JOURNAL Final - Flipbook - Page 12
Garland Chamber of Commerce
Re-envisioning Workforce Training at
the Dallas College Garland Center
and Beyond
by Veronique V. Tran, Ph.D., Vice Provost, School of MIT, Dallas College
As more North Texas manufacturers leverage
technology and integrate automation into their
processes to increase productivity, they face a
concurrent need to upskill workers and hire a
tech-savvy technician workforce. Where can
manufacturers turn for their training needs in this
Industry 4.0 era? Community colleges such as Dallas
College offer convenient access to hands-on training
for technicians at an affordable cost. The School of
Manufacturing & Industrial Technology (MIT) at Dallas
College provides an array of training solutions for
different types of students.
Students can take advantage of training while in
high school through Dual Credit Programs or new
Articulated Pathway Programs for high school career
and technical education (CTE) students. Recent high
school graduates, or adult learners, can bene昀椀t from
traditional credit certi昀椀cate and associate degree
programs at the main campuses around Dallas
County such as Richland, East昀椀eld, and Mountain
View. In recent years, community-embedded
workforce centers have become a successful
model for training adult learners, the unemployed
or underemployed, or incumbent workers seeking
upskilling. Examples of such training sites include
the newly opened Dallas College Workforce Center
at RedBird serving southern Dallas County, and the
Dallas College Garland Center in the north.
With an investment of more than $1.5M in training
equipment, the 2,740 square-foot Advanced
Manufacturing Lab at the Dallas College Garland
Center is equipped with an array of mobile trainers
for electrical and mechanical principles, motor
controls, hydraulics & pneumatics, programmable
logic controllers (PLCs), and robotics. An additional
807 square-foot Electronics Lab provides training in
AC/DC circuits, soldering, digital fundamentals, and
solid-state devices. Three computer classrooms
are available for lectures and other coursework.
DCMA Business Journal
page 4
