Ruth Ammons
The Dana Center is generating buzz among Owens Community College faculty, staff and students.
Construction on the $10 million advanced manufacturing training center on the Toledo-area Campus will be completed for Fall Semester 2020, enabling Owens to expand its current offerings and prepare a pipeline of skilled workers needed to fill in-demand jobs.
“My instructor has been talking about how we’ll have more space for our training and how the instruction will be focused on what we’ll do on the job,” said Ruth Ammons, an Owens Community College student.
The Dana Center will provide students with 59,000 square feet of classrooms, labs and modern technology and equipment for education and training in academic programs in Electrical, Applied Engineering, CAD Technology, HVAC, Machining, Mechanical/Pneumatics, Robotics, Programmable Logic Control (PLC) and Tool and Die.
The Electrical classroom and lab opened this semester with nearly 150 students enrolled.
“The work we have been doing in advanced manufacturing will be enhanced because the Dana Center allows us to not only unite our labs and classrooms in one facility, but we have doubled the space,” said Amy Giordano, Owens Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Services. “We are already recognized as northwest Ohio’s leader in workforce education and training. The Dana Center features a modern setting including natural lighting, glass walls and polished floors. This clean and safe environment is conducive to learning and it also mirrors today’s manufacturing facilities.”
Ammons, 32, came to Owens through a partnership with First Solar, the manufacturing company with a location in Perrysburg.
In 2018-19, Owens and First Solar developed an accelerated Industrial Mechanical Certificate curriculum to upskill 20 First Solar employees in six months. When one of the First Solar employees left the commitment early, Ammons got the seat and the opportunity to work toward the certificate.
Wanting to take advantage of all that Owens offers, Ammons is also enrolled in the Skilled Trades Mechanical and Applied Engineering associate degree programs.
“My teachers are awesome,” said Ammons, a 2006 Anthony Wayne High School and Penta Career Center graduate who now lives in Holland. “They’ve been in the job fields. Everything I learn applies to what you need to know for your job.”
Already twice promoted in two years at First Solar, Ammons believes the additional education will continue to help advance her career.
Labor data suggests women occupy between 8-11 percent of skilled trades, manufacturing and engineering-related careers nationally. With more than 2,100 jobs projected locally in the next five years, at an annual salary of $63,000, promoting these professions to underrepresented groups such as women could help meet labor’s demand.
Ammons said she is the only female working in her department at First Solar.
“The Dana Center will have the wow factor that younger students are looking for in their education and its comprehensive approach will appeal to men and women alike,” Brandi Powell, Director of Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship Programs, said. “Students who received their education and training at the Dana Center will be prepared to work for their new employer on the first day.”
For more information about the Dana Center, visit www.owens.edu/danacenter.
Published March 2020