AGCO broke ground on a new facility at Parkland College in Champaign, Ill., to mark the beginning of construction for an AGCO training center.

The company donated $5 million toward the construction of a 20,000-square-foot facility on the Parkland campus that will train students to become service technicians for AGCO farm equipment, according to a recent article in IPM News.

The center will provide a new home for Parkland’s existing technician training program and will also offer a 2-year associate degree to train new AGCO technicians when it opens in the Fall of 2024. With the company expecting to need 2,000 new technicians over the next 5 years, local AGCO dealerships will sponsor students through the program, which is one of a kind for the company.

“Our expert faculty will develop students – most of whom have never worked full-time – into competent service technicians and will work together with AGCO dealers to make sure they will reach levels of both technical mastery and essential workplace skills,” Parkland’s President Pamela Lau told IPM News.

According to IPM News, Ash Alt, the Aftersales Training Manager for AGCO North America, says that “It’s a hard thing to do right now, finding a valuable, experienced technician. So if you can educate the youth to become service technicians, it’ll (fulfill) a huge need to the industry.”

The full IPM News article can be found here.

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