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Take one step into the Technical Education Center at GTCC’s Greensboro campus and it’s clear the community college is preparing for the future of manufacturing technology.

Modern concrete floors and exposed steel beams guide visitors into a space flanked by computer labs, where students work intently on programs that will eventually control the work processes of the machines nearby.

Many students in the lab are working toward a certificate in Computer Numerical Controls (CNC). During the 18-hour program, they learn how to operate power machinery and computerized equipment, qualifying them to run sophisticated precision instruments necessary in modern manufacturing.

Chris Halker, chairman of the school’s machining technology department, says many of the students were laid off and are seeking career paths offering new, more stable opportunities. Halker sees a positive trend in manufacturing as companies that had previously moved operations overseas for cheap labor are now returning to the United States seeking higher-quality product.

And as companies move back, so do the jobs. Although the economy continues to struggle, Halker says there are other reasons some have trouble finding jobs in the manufacturing field.

“People are unemployed because they don’t have the skill sets needed,” he says.

Once students earn CNC certification, he says, they have no trouble finding work. CNC operators in the Greensboro-High Point metro area made an average of $33,140 a year in 2009, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “There are lots of jobs out there,” Halker says.

A desire for more stability and new opportunity is what drove Jason Fenley, 37, to return to school.

“I had been working at United Airlines as a forklift operator,” he says. “In June of 2007, I found out I was going to be laid off and I was sick of going from one dead-end job to another.”

A friend suggested he consider a career in machining, so he decided to try it. He earned his certificate in April 2009 after nine months of classes, and by August had found work with GKN Automotive in Mebane, where he worked as a CNC operator.

The first class students take in the CNC program is a manual machining class that teaches them about traditional manufacturing processes.

“Students need to know what they are doing before they can tell a computer what to do,” Halker says.

Fenley’s first project in that class was to make a hammer. “I was so proud of it,” he says. “I felt like an old-world craftsman.”

From there, students move on to more advanced classes such as metrology, which is the science of measurement, and machining technology, which focuses on the production of metal products. Classes are limited to 16 students to allow more hands-on learning.

Halker says students find out by the first semester whether the program is for them.

“We typically have a 40-percent attrition rate,” Halker says. “This program takes a lot of self-discipline and focus.”  Much of Fenley’s focus was on a blueprint-reading class, which was a challenge for him.

“I’ve never seen anything so complicated in my life.” he says. “It’s not just learning to read blueprints, but translating them into real-life objects.”   

Eventually Fenley returned to GTCC to get an associate degree in machining technology, a separate program. In May, the same month he graduated, he got a job as a CNC machinist with Atlantic Aero in Kernersville, which manufactures engine parts for airplanes.  

“I love what I do and I am good at it,” Fenley says. “I’ll never do anything else.”