“We knew this would be an incredibly fruitful partnership,” said Chris Johansen, director of operations at Arthrex Manufacturing Inc. South Carolina. “Tri-County Technical has been amazing in wanting and helping us develop a pipeline of candidates. They have a machining program and we figured this would bolster that program and ultimately help us by training students for manufacturing jobs that are important to businesses like Arthrex.” The decommissioned equipment came from the Arthrex Manufacturing Inc. facility in Ave Maria, Florida, and was installed at the college’s Industrial Technology Center, which is located across the street from our new Sandy Springs manufacturing facility. The equipment includes a Citizen CNC machine, two Prodigy lathes and an Okuma CNC machine. “(Arthrex) complements the existing biomedical companies in our service area and helps to diversify our overall manufacturing portfolio,” said Grayson Kelly, vice president for institutional advancement and business relations at Tri-County Technical College. “In addition, the equipment will benefit our students, some of whom will be employed by Arthrex in the future.”  The hope is some of the Tri-County machining graduates will help fill the 1,000-plus jobs we plan to create in Anderson County, South Carolina.

“We believe we will play a key role in helping Arthrex be successful. We take that challenge and responsibility very seriously, and we are well-known across the State for our innovative approaches to addressing industry needs,” said Tri-County Technical College Chief of Staff Dan Cooper. “Our goal is to provide skilled employees that enable companies to operate at peak performance levels and meet the rapidly changing demands of the global economy.” Chris said the hope is that students could go through the Tri-County Technical machinist program and leave with the qualifications to work as a basic machinist. “Then they could come to Arthrex and interview and, if they are a good fit, they come in and know what we do, how our machines work. They know exactly what we need them to do to create a good product,” Chris said. Arthrex is also working with ReadySC, a statewide workforce training program, to train future employees to work in the clean room. Chris said ReadySC built a mock clean room on the Tri-County Technical College campus to specifically train potential Arthrex employees for this role. “I have never dealt with organizations willing to support an operation to help them succeed like Tri-County Technical College and ReadySC have been with us,” Chris said. “We are lucky to have them as partners.”