Donnell Gant went into a personal retooling mode and landed a $50,000-a-year job at Tokai-Rika America, Plymouth, where he works on interior switches for Toyota and Ford car windows, doors and steering wheels.

The 40-year-old Macomb Township man learned new work skills free of charge at the 20,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing Training Center at the Oakland Schools Southeast Technical Campus.

The motto of the 18-month-old program is "Manufacturing is changing, so can you." It holds true for Gant, who was laid off from a $75,000-a-year automotive design job that earned him $90,000 with overtime. Gant was an early casualty of the changing economy, losing his position at Global Technology and Associates, Southgate, about five years ago.

However, with money saved and support from family, he went back to college and then ended up at the training center run by Automation Alley and Oakland Schools on Delemere Avenue. The program is solely funded by a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.

Gant is among recent graduates banking on advanced manufacturing skills, such as computer-aided design, robotics, simulation techniques and mechatronics, which is a combination of mechanical and electrical work, to keep them in decent-paying jobs in Michigan.

Gant still is taking an advanced course in CATIA V5, software and hardware for digital surfacing that enables him to make three-dimensional models for the job he started three months ago albeit at $25,000 a year less than his previous position.

"I'm not complaining. I will make it back there," Gant said after a small graduation ceremony at the training center Monday in which 20 displaced workers, incumbent workers and high school students on the manufacturing track received certificates for entry-level, technical and professional manufacturing skills.

Bill Williams, a career consultant for the training center, said 35 students have received their certificates to date, including nine displaced workers and four incumbent workers, who needed to upgrade their skills to keep their job or get a raise. He wants to see more students get into the program but they need to act quickly.

"We've got six months to go with the grant," Williams said. "We hope to continue, but there's no promise. If someone is interested they better get going. We've got a couple more 10-week sessions scheduled."

Some of the best manufacturing jobs of today and the future require mechatronics, computer numerical control (CNC) machining, programmable logic controllers and virtual process simulation for the automotive, alternative energy and biomedical fields, according to Williams.

"There's a shortage of CNC people," he added. "That machine can lead you to a $60,000 job."

The training center opened with a $465,000 federal grant received with help from U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Bloomfield Township. He passed out certificates Monday.

"For the economy in Michigan to recover and diversify, we need workers like you," Knollenberg told the graduates. "We ought to start this in middle school when students start thinking they will be a banker or lawyer. You have chosen a field the country and the county needs."

The United States graduates about 70,000 engineers a year compared to 700,000 in China, according to Knollenberg.

"We have a ways to go," he told the graduates. "Programs like this are important. They will draw more manufacturing companies because this is where the talent is and where the work ethic alone is something. Let's keep Oakland County competitive and America, too."

Knollenberg received applause from the students, including Gant, who said he almost gave up on finding another job in Michigan after years of being laid off.

"It was a huge hit and it got to the point where I was thinking when will this end," Gant said. "I thought I'd move out of state. I had a job offer in Texas and was preparing to go then this other company called in November. That sealed it. I'd rather stay. All my family is here."

Gant said the courses that moved him from automotive body design to interior switch design came easy to him.

"I love it," he said. "It's very interesting to me."

Gant is climbing a career ladder again, which is what the training center is all about, according to Paul Agosta of Applied Technology Systems, a Franklin-based business that outfitted the facility with the latest equipment.

"We're taking people with one background and backfilling the information they don't have or in the case of high school students we're giving them it all," Agosta said. "To be competitive in the marketplace, businesses have to do more with less and workers have to know the jobs of two or three people. I call them uber technicians."



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