Blue Ridge Community College opened an $8 million teaching tool and economic development generator Wednesday.
The college in Weyers Cave celebrated the opening of its advanced manufacturing and technology center; 15 valley companies helped to the facility. The center will help train students for new careers and give people already in the workforce a chance to improve their skills.
"Students today who graduate and go into the manufacturing workforce really need the type of skills that are more advanced than they needed in the past. So one of the things that this center does with this wonderful equipment, we're able to train the way that industry wants us to train," said BRCC President John Downey.
BRCC says the facility has already helped lure new business and industry to the valley. It was built partly with a pair of grants from the United States Department of Labor.
