A couple weeks ago, Dr. Bolton announced an exciting initiative to help bolster the future workforce of the manufacturing industry in Southern Colorado. The following story by Monica Mendoza ran in the Jan. 23 edition of the Colorado Springs Business Journal and also appeared among the press releases featured at PPCC.edu. We thought it was such good news that we thought to share it again via The Bulletin:

Putting territorial issues aside, Pikes Peak Community College and Pueblo Community College announced a partnership aimed at helping educate workers for the manufacturing community

Lance Bolton, president of PPCC, said he heard loud and clear the concerns of the Colorado Springs’ manufacturing community that there are not enough skilled workers in the areas of welding, machining and computer-assisted design programs.

“I heard the manufacturing industry in the Pikes Peak region say it needed help and needed it now, not down the road,” he said.

PPCC forged a partnership with Pueblo Community College to bring some of its skilled-labor training programs north. Pueblo will bring its mobile training labs – which are outfitted with the latest technology in electrical, manufacturing and welding systems — and PPCC will hire a part-time employee to work with Pueblo’s Work Force Center staff in organizing the training for Colorado Springs manufacturers.

Bolton announced the partnership Jan. 20 to a room of local manufacturers at a forum hosted by PPCC and the Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp. It was the second forum hosted by the EDC in recent months specifically to discuss issues facing the manufacturing community.

Bolton called the college partnership unprecedented because community colleges are typically territorial about enrollment counts and state and federal resources. Bolton, who worked in the private sector with DuPont for 10 years, said he understands the need for community college programs to support local industry and grow education programs to fit industry’s needs.

You can read the rest of the article at CSBJ.com.