NEWS RELEASES
Elkhart County To Help Fund Automation And Robotics Lab
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through The Elkhart Truth's website.
GOSHEN, Ind. - The Elkhart Truth reports that the Elkhart County Redevelopment Commission voted in favor of Ivy Tech’s request for $1.47 million in Tax Increment Finance District funds to meet a gap in the funding for a new advanced manufacturing, automation and robotics lab. The 10,400-square-foot facility at the community college’s Goshen Campus is scheduled to start hosting advanced manufacturing classes by 2021, with the aim of training the local workforce in automation technology.
Larry Garatoni, state trustee for Ivy Tech, told the commission that a 2019 Brookings Institute study lists the Elkhart-Goshen region as third out of 381 metropolitan areas for automation potential. “Indiana has the highest risk in the country from automation of any state in the union, because we’ve got the highest percentage of manufacturing of any state in the union. I think 35 percent of our workforce is engaged in manufacturing across the state,” he said. “There’s 71,000 people employed in Elkhart County in manufacturing, so obviously we’ve got a fair amount of risk.”
For more on advanced automation education in Elkhart, visit the Ivy Tech Community College website.