New Technology Entrepreneurship and Advanced Manufacturing High School (TEAM) is benefitting from an $80,000 Bosch Community Fund grant, collaboration and contributions from other industry leaders. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg public school system in North Carolina officially dedicated a $200,000 Bosch Rexroth Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Center at the Olympic Community of Schools in Southwest Charlotte.The 2,839-sq.-ft. center was initiated by a founding grant of $80,000 by Bosch Rexroth Corporation and the Bosch Community Fund, with additional time and resources supplied by Bosch Rexroth, the Olympic Foundation, CMS and other leading advanced manufacturing firms in the Greater Charlotte area.The facility will support an advanced manufacturing hub at the Olympic Community of Schools and provide OHS students with hands-on experience using state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies, according to Bosch Rexroth. The new center includes the latest in metal-cutting and finishing technology, with multiple lathes, milling machines, saws and grinders, along with metrology and quality-control stations. The center represents the collaborative efforts of industry leaders, public school officials and teachers to create opportunities in STEM-oriented careers in the greater Charlotte region, and to build a local supply of highly-skilled employees for technical positions, the company said.According to Bosch Rexroth’s Erwin Wieckowski, executive vice president, factory automation, the center is part of a strategy to get young people excited about opportunities in manufacturing.“Filling key technical positions in our factory here in Charlotte has never been harder,” Wieckowski said. “Our investment in the new advanced manufacturing and technology center will help us to build the technically-skilled workforce that we need locally. That’s something that all of us in the manufacturing community can rally around.”
