A successful year and big plans at Augusta Tech

The president of Augusta Technical College hit the high points of the previous 12 months while laying out ambitious plans for the next 12 in his State of the College address.

As anticipated, enrollment was up, crossing the 5,900 mark to reach 5,940 students, a 3% increase over last year. But Whirl said that number is somewhat deceiving. That represents students enrolled in credit classes, achieving certificates and degrees. Thousands more were on campus for non-credit classes, the so-called continuing education offerings.

“The last few years, we’ve only really talked about the growth on the credit side, which has been strong, but when you factor in the noncredit, this year alone, we had over 6,000 people that took continuing education classes with us, and so holistically, over 13,000 people have taken a class at Augusta Tech, and that’s up 13% this year,” he told ABD. “I think most people who think of the college only think of the associate’s degrees and the certificates, but nobody really thinks about how many people are coming because that’s a big, big opportunity, especially for individuals who just want to retrain or pick up a skill or pick up photography or take a baking class.”

Another growing area is the number of businesses using Augusta Tech to help train new or incoming employees.

“We had an extremely strong year serving companies,” Whirl said. “We were up 47%; we served over 31 companies and went into those businesses and trained their workforce. Over 300 employees of our local companies, we actually trained again.”

Whirl said several ongoing projects remain on track, including converting the former Johnson Motor Company on Walton Way to serve as the expanded automotive training campus. He anticipates demolition and construction of phase one by the end of this year. It is on target to open in late Fall 2025.

Construction is continuing on Accelerate Augusta; the incubator being created in the former Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce Building on Broad Street. It is expected to be operational in early 2025.

Two of the CSRA’s outlying counties will also experience an increased presence by Augusta Tech.

McDuffie and Burke Counties currently have satellite campuses, but Whirl said work to expand the CDL (Commercial Drivers License) training in Thomson is about to get underway. The architect will be onsite in a couple of weeks, then site preparation and construction can begin. Combined with the aviation courses, it will make McDuffie County the supply chain and transportation campus.

The school’s Board of Directors recently approved designating Burke County as the energy campus. As such, it will be home to three new training programs, including linemen training, the need for which came into focus in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

“Obviously, we have a national shortage of linemen, but just locally, we need more. And so, this has really expedited our process of really trying to get this underway,” Whirl told ABD. “We’ve been working with Georgia Power/Southern Company on this project, and we’re really going to be moving pretty swiftly to try to get this underway.”

A prerequisite for the program will be students must have a CDL license. Augusta Tech is talking with the county about setting up a CDL program in Burke County.

The third program will be electrician training specifically for EV charging stations. Whirl said some of the existing stations in Augusta need repairs and more need to be built.

Augusta Tech will kick off 2025 with the formal takeover of the Augusta Municipal Golf Course, affectionately called “The Patch.” It will be a partnership with First Tee Augusta and the Augusta National Golf Club.

“We will have an actual physical campus at The Patch. We’ll have two buildings,” he said. “The first building is an education building that’s about 17,000 square feet. That’s where our golf course management and our horticulture programs will reside full-time. And then, right across the parking lot will be an agronomy building. That agronomy building is basically the maintenance facility for all three parcels. So, the individuals who will maintain The Patch will also maintain the First Tee.”

In his 2023 address, Whirl outlined plans to ultimately build on-campus student housing and that is still in the planning stage. About ten acres are available with the goal of having 300 beds. That will open the door for Augusta Tech to revive something it used to have, a sports program.

“We had athletics years ago, back in the 90’s, we actually had a basketball team, and we had a golf team. Our golf team won multiple national championships,” he said. “We’re going to start off with basketball. We’re trying to do that 2025-2026. Then, football is the other big one we want to bring in by 2027 or 2028. We have a partner, which is Augusta United Graduate Academy.”

In the coming months, Whirl anticipates announcements on more projects and partnerships to keep Augusta Tech growing and relevant to the needs of students and businesses.

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