BSH training center dedicated at Craven Community College

The summer before Scott Ralls' senior year of college, he worked a monotonous assembly line job at a manufacturing plant in Mt. Airy. About a year later, Ralls visited Yokohama, Japan, and toured an automobile plant where he saw people moving around, letting machines do the work. It was then he realized that high-technology jobs were the future of manufacturing.

Ralls, now the president of the state community college system, said the new Bosch and Siemens Advanced Manufacturing Center at Craven Community College symbolizes engaging jobs in which people use machines to create products and add wealth to the community.

The manufacturing center was dedicated Wednesday morning. The 30,000-square-foot building includes classrooms and labs for training people for computer-integrated manufacturing, automation, metal-forming, plastics and design jobs.

"There's no place where you can hide anymore and park your brain like I did at that manufacturing plant," Ralls said. "You have to be engaged. That's what today is about. This is not just a building or a training program. It's about how we're educating our future."

The manufacturing building includes classrooms for Craven Early College, a partnership with Craven County schools that lets students complete high school and two years of college in five years.

Catherine Chew, Craven Community College's new president, called North Carolina a more business-friendly state than New Jersey and New York, where she last worked.

"This new building is symbolic in a couple of ways," Chew said. "It shows what private partnerships can do, such as the one between the college and BSH Home Appliances Corporation. It also showcases lifelong learning, because it houses Early College students and places to train manufacturing workers."

Ralls said the manufacturing center is unique, because it was conceived and funded in 2001 as North Carolina was losing 15 percent of its manufacturing jobs. At that time, BSH wanted to invest in training programs and plants to serve North America.

The N.C. General Assembly gave $7.9 million for the planning and construction of the center and equipment, in an effort to bring more manufacturing jobs from Germany to Craven County. BSH believes in training, and it was happy to expand those opportunities in New Bern because the company has had a strong relationship with the college since an apprenticeship program began in 1984, said Clemens Schaller, executive vice president of BSH's New Bern plant.

"We all know jobs are going south of the river and to the Far East," Schaller said. "We here in the high coast country can only sustain a future through knowledge and making products through knowledge. We're excited about the future this building brings."

The state House of Representatives and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue honored Schaller on Wednesday with awards for his contributions to North Carolina. Schaller also received the Old North State Award from Gov. Mike Easley.

Robin Cooley of the Federal Economic Development Administration presented to Craven Community College a check for $51,000 for equipment and a manufacturing center annex at nearby Kelso Hall.

Craven County economic, public and school officials toured the new manufacturing center Wednesday. But officials said students cannot yet enter because the college has not obtained a final certificate of occupancy. Classes are scheduled to begin in the building in October.