ALBANY, GA – On Friday, August 17, 10:00 a.m., the first commercial truck driving (CDL) graduates from the newly formed Albany Transportation Academy at Albany Technical College will be showcased at a short ceremony on campus in the CDL classroom, Plant Operations Building, just off Newton Road.
In May of this year, Albany Technical College, along with local industries and transportation carriers, “rolled out” the Albany Transportation Academy at Albany Technical College. The Albany Transportation Academy was designed to create a pool of trained, qualified employees to support the transportation industry and those industries that rely on efficient and cost-effective systems to move goods and services in our region.
The eight-week Albany Tech course is a rigorous training program providing each student the skills and expertise necessary to become a successful truck driver. Students receive top notch classroom, driving range, and road instruction from faculty who have been in the field for years. The Albany Tech curriculum includes 200 hours behind the wheel so that students gain experience with different situations, within the city, highway, and rural areas.
Experts say that nationwide there is a shortage of truck drivers and graduates of the Albany Transportation Academy are being heavily recruited by national trucking firms. Albany Tech Career Services staff say that graduates are seeing a 99 percent job placement rate and that most students should begin earning from $30,000 to $50,000 a year after training.
College officials commented that the recent announcement of the new Georgia Pacific lumber processing facility coming to Dougherty County in the fall of 2019 will also increase the need for qualified regional truckers. The lumber production facility to be constructed in the Albany-Dougherty Industrial Park will ultimately employ 340 people with other support staff such as CDL drivers to bring in raw materials for processing and deliver finished goods.
At the Friday event, graduates and faculty of the program will wear shirts imprinted with the new Albany Transportation Academy at Albany Technical College logo. The shirts were presented to the 18 graduates in celebration of course completion for the inaugural class. College, community, and industry officials will be on-hand to offer well wishes to the new drivers as they begin their CDL careers.
Dr. Anthony Parker, President of Albany Technical College, will announce at the gathering that Schneider Trucking has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Albany Tech Foundation to begin a scholarship fund for the program based on the company recruiting and hiring from the college’s pool of qualified candidates. Founded in 1935 and headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, today the company is listed as one of the five largest trucking firms in the U.S. The MOU with Schneider is in addition to the $10,000 presented to the program in May by Procter and Gamble Paper Products to establish a fund to support the Albany Transportation Academy.
Dr. Parker commented, “We are so pleased to have this solid sponsorship from our community. We will continue to recruit students who see this as a good career choice for themselves and their families. The demand for graduates is there and we know that will continue into the future. It only takes a few weeks and then graduates can begin employment with one of several national and international firms.”
Participating partners in the Albany Transportation Academy include Raven Transport, Schneider Trucking, Benny Whitehead Inc., Werner Enterprises, TMC, ROEHL, Knight Refrigerated, U.S. Xpress, Southern Ag Carriers, and other national and worldwide transportation firms.
About Albany Technical College
A public postsecondary institution of the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), Albany Technical College provides technical education and training support for the evolving workforce needs of Southwest Georgia through traditional and online classroom settings. Albany Tech is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS/COC). For more information about Albany Tech, go to www.albanytech.edu or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AlbanyTech or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbanyTech. You can also subscribe to our YouTube Channel by visiting www.youtube.com/albanytech1 .