Ashley Invests in Mobile Skills Lab for Local Schools

October 10, 2018  by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry   

The more than $3 million investment made to the Trempealeau Valley Cooperative, which includes the Arcadia, Blair-Taylor, Independence, and Whitehall school districts, will provide students with the opportunity to take over 300 competency-based courses for high school credit in a state-of-the-art, custom-built Mobile Skills Laboratory. These courses support the skills needed in today’s high demand career fields.

Ashley Furniture and the Trempealeau Valley Cooperative, joined by Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and local officials, celebrated the grand opening of the Mobile Skills Laboratory with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday, Oct. 8, at the Whitehall School District where the lab is currently stationed. The four-school consortium will each host the Mobile Skills Laboratory at their school district on a nine-week rotational schedule.

The 900-square-foot classroom on wheels features advanced equipment from Amatrol, Fanuc, Yaskawa and SolidWorks to expose students to industry-standard processes. Amatrol designs, develops and manufactures technical learning systems, highly interactive eLearning, hands-on simulators, and more to train tomorrow’s global workforce for many diverse industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, automotive and agriculture.

Enrolled students will have the opportunity to learn about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) related fields, including electrical, wiring, motor controls, programming, print reading, mechanical fabrication, precision gauging, hydraulics, pneumatics, troubleshooting and computer aided drafting. A large number of these courses will also provide students with transferable credit to area technical colleges and potential universities.

In addition to the equipment purchased, Ashley provided an opportunity for eight area educators to experience the Amatrol facility in Jeffersonville, Ind. These educators were able to see the capabilities of the training equipment and what the Mobile Skills Laboratory can offer to an area through educating the future and current workforce.

“We believe in the importance of developing long-lasting partnerships with our local schools and investing in the area of education for our youth,” said Ron Wanek, founder and chairman of Ashley Furniture Industries. “The Mobile Skills Laboratory will inspire students to learn advanced technologies through an interactive learning environment that can result in rewarding careers in many different industries.”