Local community leaders gathered at the welding lab at the Central Education Center in Newnan on October 21 to celebrate a partnership between West Georgia Technical College and Yamaha, which donated a robot for the CEC’s welding students to use in an instructional setting.

West Georgia Tech and Yamaha have long been community partners - with West Georgia Tech providing the company with ready-to-hire graduates on a yearly basis.

Yamaha’s recent contribution is a “win-win” for both entities, according to West Georgia Technical College President Steve G. Daniel.

“One of our main missions at West Georgia Tech is to provide our local communities with a skilled, highly-trained workforce, and partnerships like the ones we have with Yamaha and the CEC are extremely important,” Daniel said. “We appreciate and depend on contributions such as the one that Yamaha provided, so that our students can train on the latest technologies that simulate the highly technical environments seen in industry.”

President Daniel along with Yamaha representatives, members of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber and representatives from Coweta Economic Development, Congressman Lynn Westmoreland’s office and Piedmont Newnan Hospital were on hand for the official presentation and were given a first glimpse of the robot last Wednesday.

WGTC welding instructor Joe Pennington delivered remarks thanking Yamaha, and the local community partners that were present, for supporting the welding program and its students.

“I want to thank Yamaha and everyone else who has supported us on this momentous occasion – and by joining us as we recognize a milestone in this long-lasting partnership of providing quality young professionals for a very important local industry. We could not do what we do in the classroom without their generous and unwavering support,” Pennington said.

WGTC held a robot-naming contest at the CEC. Clay Godfrey (Newnan, Ga.) and August Exner (Newnan, Ga.) both selected the winning name “Old Yeller,” and were presented with a gift card as a reward for making the winning selection.

CEC is a unique partnership, a “joint venture” among business and industry, the Coweta County School System, and West Georgia Technical

Yamaha makes all-terrain-vehicles (ATVs), Side-by-Side vehicles, golf cars and personal watercraft at its 1.3 million-square-foot plant in Newnan.

- See more at: http://www.westgatech.edu/news/#sthash.zUSeDTOO.dpuf