Guilford Technical Community College is set to break ground at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday on the first phase of its new $34.6 million aviation center.
The event will be held at the GTCC Conference Center at 7908 Leabourne Road in Colfax.
Gov. Josh Stein, Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, Guilford Tech President Anthony Clarke and HondaJet Chief Administrative Officer Rich Richardson are scheduled to attend.
The 70,000-square-foot training center is being built on the Cameron campus, which opened in 2014 just northwest of Greensboro. The training center is projected to debut in the spring of 2027.
The state of North Carolina and Guilford County are the sources for the funding.
The center will expand the college’s aviation training facilities to support emerging technologies in composites, structures, and assembly, while also housing the aviation manufacturing and avionics programs.
The first of two planned buildings will increase Guilford Tech’s capacity by 40%, allowing the college to serve more than 700 students annually.
The programs offered include aerospace machining, manufacturing engineering, and manufacturing management; aircraft structures; assembly and repair; aviation electronics (avionics) technology; aviation management; aviation systems technology; career pilot; emergency medical science – occupational extension; and non-destructive testing.
There’s also aviation manufacturing “quick careers programs” for aircraft structural repairs, composite technology and structures assembly.
In 2022, GTCC leaders stated that they expected to continue using the college’s T.H. Davis Aviation Center, located adjacent to the runway at Piedmont Triad International Airport, for aviation programs.
However, the new center would replace the school’s current Aviation II and Aviation III buildings, located off Stagecoach Road near Piedmont Triad Airport in Greensboro.
The second phase of the project would add another 30,000 square feet.
Clarke said the second phase is dependent on county money. The college, he said, is currently working with the county to obtain funding for that portion.
Clarke said the catalyst for the latest training center is “the needs of the current aviation companies already here in the Triad and needs of new companies like Boom Supersonic, Marshall Aerospace and JetZero.”
He added, “It’s clear it’s going to take a Triad-wide approach to recruit and train the projected 17,000 employees that those three aviation manufacturers will need between now and 2040.
“That’s not taking into consideration thousands of jobs from suppliers serving the companies, whether on the PTI campus or within driving range in Guilford, Forsyth and surrounding counties.”
Clarke said there have been discussions with Guilford County Schools to create an aviation-focused early or middle college institution on the Cameron campus.
Guilford County Schools currently operates other early and middle college programs, which allow high school students to take college classes and receive college credits on the campuses of several local colleges, including Guilford Technical Community College.
Clarke said Guilford Tech believes there are options to provide classroom and lab space to a portion of the projected high school students in classrooms and labs within the two conjoined buildings the school plans to build.
rcraver@wsjournal.com
336-727-7376
@rcraverWSJ
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