CARMI – Last week SIC’s new Stanford D. Williams Career and Training Center welcomed its first class. The students are primarily from Carmi High School and are taking welding taught by Griffin Hart and programmable logic controllers (PLC) taught by Tracy Bunting.

A PLC is an industrial computer that has been ruggedized and adapted for the control of manufacturing processes, such as assembly lines, machines, robotic devices, or any activity that requires high reliability, ease of programming, and process fault diagnosis.

The high school students will complete part of the Industrial Maintenance Certificate this semester. The students’ costs are generously funded by the Absher Charitable Foundation, and each student that completes the program will receive a $1,000 stipend at the end of the program.

“We are so excited to kick off these long-awaited programs in Carmi,” said SIC Vice President Dr. Karen Weiss. “With the addition of our second building to be completed next year, we look forward to offering even more opportunities for our White County students and adults looking for training, and we are thankful to the Carmi business community for their support in this endeavor to train more students for skilled employment in the area.”

A couple of Vibracoustic employees – Nathan Mitchell and James Wring – are also taking the PLC class as part of an on-the-job learning experience.

Programs will be expanded in the future to include a wider variety of training for more students in the high schools, as well as, traditional college students and adult learners.