FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW POLYMER TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM NOW BEING OFFERED

Polymer Manufacturing Technology is one of Danville Community College’s newest program offerings. Jerry Franklin, Director of Manufacturing and Technical Services, is shown opening the 80-ton Krauss-Maffei injection molder which is housed at the Regional Center for Advanced Technology and Training. According to Franklin, the new DCC program is only one out of two “formal plastics training program” in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

DANVILLE, VA, December 11, 2006 – As the New Year approaches, Danville Community College has a

 new program of interest to area residents - Polymer Manufacturing Technology. This new program prepares students for jobs in the plastics and polymers manufacturing industry and provides the technical knowledge and skills necessary for employment as a Polymer Manufacturing Technician in an injection molding or extrusion environment.

“DCC is one of a few community colleges in the region that offers this program,” says Jerry Franklin, Director of Manufacturing and Technical Services. “We will be the only formal plastics training program within 200 miles.”     

According to Franklin, Polymer Manufacturing Technology will start as a certificate program before morphing into an Associate of Applied Science degree program. Designed with working individuals in mind, courses are set in evenings; however, a day schedule may be implemented depending on community interest.

Franklin notes that courses will be held at the college’s state-of-the-art Regional Center for Advanced Technology and Training. Students will learn a skill that will be applicable to plastics processing industries, such as injection molding, extrusion and vacuum forming.

He adds that they will learn the processing characteristics of plastics, polymer science, mold making, etc., which will prepare them for jobs at area companies such as Essel Propack, Ltd., Arista Tubes, Ltd., Intertape Polymer Group, Inc., and Presto Products Company. In addition, Franklin says regional economic developers are targeting the plastics industry to locate new facilities in the area.

According to Franklin, there is demand for jobs in plastics manufacturing, and DCC is serving that need.

“If you look around, everything you buy nowadays are made in plastics. There’s a ton of it being made all the time,” says Franklin. “It’s a good program for anybody who likes to work with their hands, likes science, and likes to work with equipment.”

For more information about the Polymer Plastics Technology program, call Jerry Franklin at 434.797.8573, or click here.