Talent Development

Central Educational Center

Central Educational Center (CEC) is a publicly-funded charter college and career academy in Newnan, Coweta County, Georgia. CEC is a joint-venture partnership among the Coweta County School System, West Georgia Technical College, and business and industry, providing learners from 8th-12th grade, and throughout adulthood, a seamless education for life.

"Team members” (8th-12th grade students) attending Central Educational Center attend voluntarily from one of six middle schools or from one of three high schools in Coweta County, and may still participate in regular middle school and high school activities. These team members graduate from the high school in which they are enrolled, just like other students. Courses they take at CEC seamlessly combine traditional and applied academics with career and technical education, providing opportunities for work-based and project-based learning, teamwork, and a high set of expectations for personal and professional achievement. CEC team members may also take dual-enrolled college classes with West Georgia Technical College, earning simultaneous credit in high school and college.

Work ethic is a key component in grading team member performance. In college classes, there are separate grades for academic performance and for work ethic performance. In high school classes, a component of every academic grade is work ethic performance. The impact on that academic grade is made larger since points are added for exceptional attendance, or points are deducted for poor attendance, based on objective standards for work ethic. More than 200 organizations provide internship opportunities for more than 400 CEC team members annually, and those organizations grade interns on work ethic performance at least twice per semester.

High school team members take classes with adult learners, and adults also enroll at CEC for GED, day and evening technical college courses, and customized training for local corporations. CEC has been visited by more than 500 organizations from most US states and 16 countries, has been studied in Japanese educational literature, serves Georgia as the model for the state's charter College and Career Academy Initiative, and has been named a national model for high school educational reform.

Central Educational Center
160 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive
Newnan, GA 30263
Phone: 678-423-2000
Website: http://www.gacec.com

West Georgia Technical College

West Georgia Technical College, a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, is proud to be part of the Coweta County community. The College has had a presence in Coweta County since 2000 through its partnership in the Central Educational Center, but through the support of community partners, the longtime dream of a full-service, stand-alone campus will soon be realized.

West Georgia Technical College is a state leader in technical and adult education. Its over 7,200 credit students make West Georgia Tech the second largest technical college in Georgia. Campuses in Carroll, Douglas, Haralson and Troup counties and additional class sites in Heard and Meriwether counties,offer more than 130 degree, diploma and certificate programs in addition to adult basic education and GED preparation courses. Corporate Training and continuing Education departments offer a wide array of courses to business and industry and individuals who want short-term, targeted offerings.

The current Coweta Campus, on the site of CEC, offers programs that include dental assisting, automotive, welding, cosmetology, patient care, culinary arts and commercial truck driving. Core courses are also offered. Well-equiped, modern laboratories and state-of-the-art equipment enable students to train on industry-specific, real-world equipment.

The new Coweta Campus will be located on a 38-acre tract at the intersection of Interstate 85 and Turkey Creek Road, about 1.5 miles from CEC and near the future sites of Piedmont Newnan Hospital and Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). This property was generously donated by Orchard Hills Golf Properties.  Planning is underway for the construction of two buildings on this property, one funded through the private fund-raising efforts of the West Central Technical College Foundation and one funded through an appropriation of the state legislature.

Work is still being done to finalize program offerings for the new campus; however the community has identified healthcare as a primary need of area employers, including Piedmont Newnan and CTCA. Consequently, the College plans to offer a variety of health-related programs such as registered nursing, patient care and medical assisting. Other programs planned for the new campus include criminal justice, cosmetology and commercial truck driving.

Georgia's HOPE Scholarships and Grants and Federal Pell Grants, as well as several local scholarships, are available to students. Admissions, financial aid and other personnel are available on each campus to make it easy for students to find the help they need. Each campus also offers a full-service bookstore and a library. College-wide even in troubled economic times, West Georgia has a 93 percent placement rate for graduates, a testament to the real-world job skills taught to students.

West Georgia Technical College provides the fuel that powers West Georgia's Economic Engine.

West Georgia Technical College
160 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive
Newnan, GA 30263
Phone: 678-423-2000
Website: http://www.westgatech.edu

Georgia Quick Start

For more than 40 years, Quick Start has provided customized workforce training free-of-charge to qualified businesses in Georgia.

Today, the program is one of the state's key assets for supporting new and expanding industries. Quick Start delivers training in classrooms, mobile labs or directly on the plant floor, wherever it works best for a company. To ensure that all economic development personnel are prepared with the latest skills strategies for workforce training, Quick Start also administers an ongoing program for professional development, the Certified Economic Developer Trainer program.

Quick Start's five regional offices mean that no matter where in Georgia a company chooses to locate, a Quick Start team of experts is available to provide local support for any project. Training coordinators familiar with their areas and the local workforce are uniquely positioned to provide timely, customized training. Each office is also staffed with a team of graphic designers, illustrators and desktop publishers, to produce training materials, tailored to your needs, quickly and efficiently.
Website: www.georgiaquickstart.org

Georgia Department of Labor

The Georgia Department of Labor's mission is to work with public and private sector partners in building a world-class workforce system that contributes to Georgia's economic prosperity. They accomplish this by:

• Helping individuals attain their work goals and increase self-sufficiency through employment, training, comprehensive rehabilitation, and support services.
• Helping employers meet their business needs through employee recruitment and selection services, workforce information, and technical support.

With a staff of over 4,000 under the leadership of State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, the GDOL consists of the following divisions and offices: Employment Services, Unemployment Insurance, Workforce Development, Rehabilitation Services, Safety Engineering, and Workforce Information and Analysis.  Also, the Georgia Department of Labor has 53 local Career Centers and 53 Vocational Program offices throughout the state.

For a complete list of services, please visit our web site at www.dol.state.ga.us.