Chattanooga State Community College and Wacker Polysilicon North America, LLC announced the creation of the Wacker Institute Monday morning.
The Wacker Institute at Chattanooga State was designed to ensure that qualified applicants will be prepared and ready to fill more than 600 production and professional positions at the plant opening in Bradley County in 2013.
The four principal areas of study include Chemical Technology, Chemical Laboratory Technology, Mechanical Technology and Electrical and Instrumentation Technology.
"It's a very important day for us," Chattanooga State President Jim Catanzaro said this morning in the Berry Auditorium of the school's Health Science Center. "We have been involved in training of our area workforce and have dedicated a good part of our assets of this institution to making sure we do that and do that well."
Ingomar Kovar, president and CEO of Wacker Chemical Corp., described the institute as cutting-edge tech training program for future Wacker employees.
Beginning with the fall 2011 semester, the Wacker Institute and other engineering technology programs will be housed in the former Olan Mills building located adjacent to Chattanooga State's main campus.
It will occupy 25,000 square feet of the 149,000 square-foot facility. In addition, Wacker donated $ million to the construction of a state-of-the-art chemical training plant for the institute.
For complete details, see tomorrow's Times Free Press.