by Heather Mullinix, Tennessee Crossville Chronicle
Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Crossville not only offers a path to a postsecondary degree or certification, it also offers career development and workforce training opportunities for local industry and business.
“We’ve got over 500 people going to school here right now,” said Cliff Wightman, director of the Crossville TCAT campus during the Oct. 31 Workforce and Education Summit. “And 100 of those are high schoolers.”
The school offers 19 full-length programs, but it can also serve as a certification center that administers national industry tests and provide targeted training programs in cooperation with local industries.
Wightman praised the K-12 education system in the county and the spirit of cooperation in the community, saying that has helped move forward several initiatives and programs. Those partnerships include education, business, industry and the faith-based community.
“Everybody’s on focus, and everybody’s on point,” Wightman said. “It all becomes that one objective: to make things better.”