‘Designed for the future’: Elgin Community College celebrates opening of new Manufacturing and Technology Center

Calling it a “building designed for the future,” Elgin Community College celebrated the opening of its new $88 million Manufacturing and Technology Center Thursday.

Though classes in the building began in August, the celebration offered a first look for hundreds of campus and community members, as well as area business leaders, legislators and other stakeholders.

ECC President Peggy Heinrich called it a “very exciting day for Elgin Community College, but even more importantly, it’s an exciting day for the students and the employers and the communities that we serve.”

“We knew that we needed to create a facility that could grow with our region, respond to changes in technology and industry, and prepare students not only for the jobs of today, but for the careers that are going to emerge in the years that come,” she said. “The MTC is a building that is designed for the future, and its impact has already begun.”

School officials say the roughly 150,000-square-foot facility significantly expands ECC’s capacity to prepare students for careers in advanced manufacturing and other high-demand technical fields, with modern classrooms and labs.

Cathy Taylor, dean of sustainability, business, and career technologies, said the facility “allows us to do differently.”

“Our students now have access to equipment and technology and learning spaces that closely reflect what they will encounter when they enter the workforce,” Taylor said. “Our faculty have the space and industrial equipment to expand our hands-on learning and adapt as industry changes, and ECC has a greater capacity to work directly with employers to develop training that responds to real workforce needs.”

Taylor said the MTC offers programs in advanced manufacturing, automation, robotics, maintenance technology, welding, HVAC, green energy, and “other technologies shaping our region's workforce.”

“This center brings education and workforce opportunities together in a very tangible way,” she said.

Many business leaders who will offer those opportunities attended the event.

Tim Taylor, vice president and general manager of Haas Factory Outlet which distributes, services and supports the Haas line of machine tools, said the lack of skilled workers is a top issue.

“Workforce development is something that we're really passionate about,” said Taylor, whose company also provided funding for the program. “There’s quite frankly more manufacturing and more manufacturing jobs coming to the country than we have people for. So we need to have spaces like this to educate that next generation of manufacturers.”

Nearly 100 classes are offered in the new building, with just under 600 students enrolled in programs.

As community members toured the building, faculty member Steven Wood greeted guests in his classroom. An HVAC and refrigeration instructor at ECC for more than 30 years, he said even after several weeks of teaching in the new space, he was still incredulous about the facility.

“I never thought in my life I'd see it, but by gosh, they pulled it off,” he said.

He said the new facility allows him to teach students real-world skills in a real-world environment.

“That's what I love about it because you can show them that this is not a trainer,” he said, pointing to the lab. “They can think of that as a real factory floor.”

rwest@dailyherald.com