Atlanta Technical College (ATC) President, Dr. Victoria Seals and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms spoke at the college’s first-ever legislative showcase event to celebrate ATC’s Center for Transportation and Logistics.
The new center will train students in highly needed trades to become diesel mechanics, supply chain specialists, warehouse managers and commercial truck drivers.
While Atlanta Tech already offers all of these programs they will have the opportunity to expand in the new building.
Mayor Bottoms spoke about how the new center will help to alleviate the current shortage of skilled labor in Atlanta.
“It’s a great time to have a license,” she told the room of mostly legislators and ATC officials.
Mayor Bottoms also announced she would be asking the council to allocate $2 million to Wheels of Equity, the capital campaign to support the new center.
Bottoms called the City of Atlanta a “logistics hub for the county and for the globe.”
She pointed out that as home to the world’s busiest airport Atlanta needs to have skilled workers in these fields.
Workforce development is one of ATC’s central objectives, the school boasts its 99 percent job placement rating for graduates.
“It’s important for ATC to focus on the high demand careers because this is what it means for individuals and families to experience economic mobility,” Seals said. “For us to focus on these careers and provide this training is being part of the solution to helping individuals and families get out of poverty.”
In the new Center for Transportation and Logistics, Atlanta Tech will have the opportunity to tailor the space to accommodate the needs of their programs. The building will have extra high ceilings so diesel trucks can be lifted high enough in the air that students can walk under them while they are working.
Atlanta Tech is also one of the few schools in Georgia to have a driving simulator for students who are in the commercial driver’s license program. Their students have a 100 percent pass rate when it comes to the CDL test.
At the new center, ATC will have its own Department of Transportation-approved driving range for CDL students to practice on. They currently have to borrow a third-party facility which presents logistical obstacles for students and the college.
