Georgia Piedmont Tech focused on student growth

Georgia Piedmont Tech maintains focus on getting students career-ready

By GARRETT PITTS

news@covnews.com

If you are someone who is looking to take the next steps into a technical field, Georgia Piedmont Technical College Newton Campus can provide that and some on your journey into your job field.

Georgia Piedmont Tech was founded in 1961, but it was not until 1997 that the Newton Campus was built, allowing students to have a local and affordable opportunity to get the technical education they needed.

Georgia Piedmont Tech President Tavarez Holston took over in September of 2018 as he was given the challenge of turning around a college in the midst of a turmoil.

“[When I was hired], I came into a situation where the college was in financial distress, and that whole narrative has fully shifted,” Holston said.

Holston recently confirmed big renovations on the campus for 2021, as it looks to improve the campus from the ground up.

“The renovations will start within the next two to three months, every piece of technology [will be improved],” Holston said. “Most of it was spurred by what we learned from the pandemic, and it is about innovating technology into our work.”

Georgia Piedmont Tech strives to provide the proper training and access to learn for the jobs specific to Newton County.

Transportation and logistics, technology, and health care are just a few of the fields that Georgia Piedmont Tech provides and some of the fields that Holston expects to boom in 2021 as they continue to become more involved in a world that is in a pandemic.

One thing that Holston emphasizes is workforce development and providing proper training in an ever-changing workforce.

“Our whole point of existence at GPTC is that anyone who wants to get a job can get the skills that it takes to pursue the career that they are interested in,” Holston said. “It is going to be increasingly difficult to get a job without some kind of education, so the key to that is a high school diploma or equivalency so we are able to teach that.”

Along with providing the opportunity for people to get the equivalent to a high school diploma, Georgia Piedmont Tech still provides the traditional credit-based courses.

Each program at Georgia Piedmont Tech has its own advisory committee filled with members in those specific fields in order to provide the most up-to-date and effective learning experience possible to better suit today’s workforce requirements.

Another benefit for people specific to Newton County is the location combined with the affordable cost of the college.

“You do not have to travel across multiple counties, it is home,” Holston said. “It is very affordable. In most of our programs that we teach our job placement rate is 99%, so what it means is that when you leave here you get a job, and it is in a field that you studied in.”

Georgia Piedmont Tech offers both the Hope Scholarship and the Pell Grant as well as the ability to earn more benefits if you are studying in a strategic industry, where more tuition and fees are covered.

Following his first two years at Georgia Piedmont Tech, Holston keeps it simple when discussing why he chose this college.

“It is always about the students. It is about helping someone learn and grow and become what they want to be,” Holston said. “The real motivation behind what I want and [the rest of the staff is to] help people be what they want to be when they grow up.”

As Holston continues to leave his mark on Georgia Piedmont Tech, he wants to continue to change the landscape of how people think about technical college.

“When people think about manufacturing, you think about smokestacks and grease and bad working conditions, and that’s not what that industry is about,” Holston said. “Those [students] are usually carrying around laptops and they are programming and interacting with machinery.”

As Georgia Piedmont Tech looks to have a breakout 2021 with the upcoming renovations and a job market that is in need of technical students, the future is looking bright.

“It is about return on investment, [that’s] what happens with a technical college,” Holston said. “We are in the process of investing millions in technology and our infrastructure and just the aesthetics of the campus.”