VECTR Center seeking community’s help for Google Impact Challenge

The Georgia VECTR (Veterans Education Career Transition Resource) Center has been selected, along with four other organizations from the state of Georgia, as candidates for the Google Impact Challenge.

The Chief Operating Officer for the VECTR Center, Patricia Ross, informed that The Google Impact Challenge is, “A grant that is provided to organizations within a specific state that the intent of it is to help in some way.” Ross expressed that the VECTR Center was honored to be selected as a candidate and that the grant would be allocated, if received, to a new program that the center had opened involving industrial systems maintenance.

“The whole intent of the grant… was how we would impact the state and individuals in the state. So, for us, that was a pretty easy narrative to write, because we do have a statewide mission to train military veterans and their family members.

“What we specifically focused on for this grant was a new program we had opening up in industrial systems maintenance, which has very expensive equipment but is meeting the needs of our advanced manufacturers across the state.” Ross explained and continued that as far as economic engines and industries in the state go, advanced manufacturing is ranked eighth in the state and accounts for around nine percent of the total employment for Georgia. Advanced Manufacturing, said Ross, is also the number on industry that military veterans are moving toward.

Ross expanded that there is a demand for the industrial systems maintenance skill trade. Ross noted that the advanced manufacturing industry needs people to maintain the machinery and that the ability to build that talent is a critical aspect to their business, as well as the “economic viability,” of the state.

To create the program, Ross said that the VECTR Center worked with their partner organizations to create an “accelerated curriculum,” and over those 15 weeks, participants would accrue all the needed skills that these employers desire. Ross added that the participants would have guaranteed interviews, but the piece that was missing from the program was the equipment.

“Google provided us the initial funds for equipment, and if we are selected as the public choice winner, that gives us additional money for equipment, where we can expand the number of students we can train at any one time,” Ross illustrated. She further added that there is public voting on all of the five organizations that were selected across the state, and this voting will be open until the end of August.

Ross maintained that the key to economic success for the state of Georgia is a skilled work force, and that the VECTR Center’s goal is to bring in transitioning military veterans and their spouses.

“With advanced manufacturing being the number one industry that is drawing that population, providing them the skill where we can quickly train them in this high demand industry … allows us to provide tremendous employees to our advanced manufacturers across the state, and allows the state to recruit additional employers, because now you have this talent pool,” Ross stated, further explaining that the partner employers that the VECTR Center works with will inform that they always need someone to perform maintenance on the machinery—no matter how advanced technology becomes—or else production will stop.

HHJ News