New Ohio training program for advanced robotics to launch in 2019 school year
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An estimated 87,000 new robotic jobs will need to be filled in the U.S. over the next decade. Yaskawa Motoman and the Robotics & Advanced Manufacturing Technology Education Collaborative (RAMTEC) want to fill those jobs right here in Ohio with a new educational partnership announced today in Miamisburg.
"The vision that we had is to develop the workforce of the 21st century,” says Ritch Ramey of RAMTEC.
The new partnership will expand RAMTEC’s curriculum to provide advanced robotic training and certifications that will be available to students in Central Ohio and around the state.
“It offers them an opportunity to be best in class and to find the best jobs in the nation and the world," adds Gus Comstock, director of Marion CAN DO.
Recent Elgin High grad Wesley Stillions has been taking classes at RAMTEC for two years, and has already built a working robot for Whirlpool. Stillions plans to enlist in the military first, but hopes to get a robotics job at Honda when he returns.
“It makes me feel really proud, and especially proud to be from Marion," he said.
The new program will help students like Wesley get high paying jobs at Ohio companies like Yaskawa right out of high school when it begins offering courses in the 2019 school year.
"We are going to get behind these programs to make Ohio the most talented state in the Midwest. The most business friendly state in the Midwest and the state where people say this is where the future of manufacturing is in the world," added Ohio Secretary of State John Husted, who was at today’s event.
