Henderson partners with CSN to open special training facility

A crowd of educators, business people and government officials gathered in Henderson on Tuesday for the grand opening ceremony for the Debra March Center of Excellence, a training facility devoted to the College of Southern Nevada’s advanced manufacturing training program.

The center is a multiuse facility that CSN is using to train students in advanced manufacturing.

“Here’s the best part. Here you can learn from scratch,” CSN department head Eduardo Suarez said. “The students don’t need any previous knowledge to learn the system, and at the same time, of course, we can not only teach the very, very basic skills, but we can go on to the next level.”

Instructors with the program said that it teaches skills crucial to modern manufacturing. Instructor Steven Benjamin said students in the program learn how to operate machinery that is in use all over modern manufacturing.

Many people at the event highlighted that advanced manufacturing is growing in more than just Henderson.

Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero, former Mayor Debra March, CSN President Federico Zaragosa, U.S. Congresswoman Dina Titus and others were among those who extolled the center’s benefits and its promise during the event.

So did CSN student Fasika Abebe during his speech.

He talked about the importance of advanced manufacturing and commended his instructors for their “fatherly” mentorship.

“If you want a career that is expanding in the world, not just Nevada or the USA — in the world,” Abebe said, “this is a place to come.”

Zaragosa said the college worked with the Nevada System of Higher Education to make the training course’s curriculum able to lead directly to jobs within the industry. He said the course will include work certifications and connections with companies such as Haas Automation, which is already partnered with the program.

Officials are working with public schools to teach the basics of the curriculum to create a “pipeline” through which students can go straight from public school, through the training program and ultimately be ready for a job.

The program also will offer options for low-income adults already out of high school, according to Zaragosa. He said the advanced manufacturing training program can be shortened to get people certified for jobs quicker than the normal one or two-year program.

“At the end of the day, it’s the promise that people are going to have a job at the back end that are family-sustainable jobs,” Zaragosa said. “That’s what this place is going to be able to do.”

Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Instagram @writermark2.