(LOOTPRESS) – “Numerous officials gathered at the former ACF Industries site along 3rd Avenue this morning to celebrate the Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center receiving a $550,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support the continued growth of its welding training programs, which will be moving to the former ACF site in early 2025.
The Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center (formerly RCBI until recently) trains more than 700 people annually in a variety of programs and has approximately 300 projects with manufacturers across West Virginia each year.
This grant will help the Manufacturing Center purchase much of the equipment needed to outfit its new welding center at the former ACF site. In addition, the Manufacturing Center will add robotic-welding techniques to the curriculum and aerospace-welding techniques in a partnership with Marshall’s aviation program.
One of Manufacturing Center’s welding programs is an associate’s degree in partnership with Mountwest Community and Technical College. Other current welding instruction takes place as short-term, customized training sessions for companies and individuals.
A federal earmark from U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and a portion of the $63 million in grant funding acquired through the ACT Now Coalition’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge application (of which the City of Huntington and Huntington Municipal Development Authority were partners) for economic revitalization projects in Southern West Virginia will fund the renovations to the “sawtooth” building where the Manufacturing Center’s welding programs will be housed. The building was built in 1949 and was home to ACF’s machine shop. Renovation of the building is expected to begin in spring 2024.
Combined, these sources of funding are expected to help the Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center double the capacity of its welding program from 35 to 70 students."