The Economic Development Division provides high-quality solutions for economic and workforce development. This is accomplished by offering a wide variety of programs, courses, and services through the Community Education Department, Corporate Training Department, Conference Centers, and Business & Industry Services.
Community Education Department
The Community Education Department provides individuals with high-quality non-credit training solutions for personal and professional development and enrichment. This is accomplished by offering thousands of courses through the Computer, Healthcare, Industrial, Personal, Professional, and Online Education Centers as well as our Assessment & Testing Center.
Corporate Training Department
The Corporate Training Department provides employers with high-quality solutions for workforce development. This is accomplished by offering a wide variety of customized training for software, soft skills, professional development, safety, industrial maintenance, manufacturing, and much more. Training is specifically tailored to the request of an employer with regard for schedule, location and curriculum that is developed and delivered by professionals with relevant business and industry experience. Highlighted are the Workforce Development Center, Safety Academy, Leadership Academy, and Industrial Maintenance Education Center.
Workforce Development Center provides employers a practical option to customized corporate training by offering pre-scheduled courses for open enrollment of smaller groups of employees. Dozens of courses in Professional Development, Project Management, Human Resources, Six Sigma, Safety / OSHA, Succession Planning / Supervision / Management / Leadership, Computer, Industrial Maintenance, Customer Service and Manufacturing. Most of these courses are conveniently delivered and rotated among our locations in Carrollton, Douglasville, LaGrange, and Newnan.
Leadership Academy provides the Managerial & Supervisory Leadership Certificate that serves employers with a practical solution for succession management through a series of customized courses including but not limited to Supervision, Coaching & Mentoring, Management, Change, Leadership, Communication, Customer Service, Risk, Inventory, Quality, Process, Performance, Conflict, Organizational Behavior & Communication, Project Management, Teams & Participation, and Ethics & Etiquette among dozens of other courses.
Industrial Maintenance Education Center offers a wide variety of Industrial Maintenance Technician Certificates that have been endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education as an innovative approach designed to introduce employees to industrial maintenance or enhance the skills of experienced industrial maintenance technicians. Programs are tailored based on a selection of specific industrial maintenance objectives. Each program comprises a series of short courses that each includes a pre-assessment, self-study interactive online training, a post-assessment, and a hands-on lab that is completed at the WGTC Southwire Center for Manufacturing Excellence located on the WGTC Carroll Campus.
Conference Centers
Conference Centers provide organizations and individuals with high quality solutions hosting business meetings, office retreats, conferences, weddings, family reunions, and other events. This is accomplished through our unique venues at the Murphy Conference Center in Waco, GA and the Callaway Conference Center in LaGrange, GA that offer convenient and practical accommodations with up to 11,000 square feet and capacities for up to 650 people in banquet and 1,200 in auditorium seating. The Callaway Conference Center, in partnership with the widely recognized Burson Center in Carroll County, also offers facility rentals and other services to assist new and existing businesses and entrepreneurs.
Business and Industry Services
Business and Industry Services provide employers with high-quality solutions for economic and workforce development. This is accomplished by facilitating a wide variety of services including but not limited to Georgia Quick Start and Georgia Retraining Tax Credits among many other services.
Georgia Quick Start is nationally recognized for providing high-quality training services at no cost to new or expanding businesses in Georgia that are preparing to hire a minimum number of net new employees in the same job classification for the manufacturing and warehouse and distribution industry or the service industry. Since 1967, Quick Start has provided customized training for hundreds of thousands of employees and for thousands of businesses and industries throughout the state.
Georgia Retraining Tax Credits are available to foster the profitability and competitiveness of Georgia’s existing businesses by encouraging workforce development through retraining tax incentives, helping companies offset the costs of retraining employees that are affected by the implementation of new equipment or new technology, and enhancing the skills of Georgia employees to enable them to successfully use new equipment, technology or operating systems. An eligible business may be granted tax credits equal to one-half of the direct cost of retraining, up to $500 per program per year per person, up to $1,250 per person per year, and up to 50 percent of the amount of the taxpayer’s income tax liability for the taxable year as computed without regard to this Code.