This grant provided funding to College of the Albemarle (COA) to purchase machining equipment utilized primarily in its Computer Integrated Machining and Computer Aided Drafting programs. The project allowed COA to train students and incumbent workers on the state-of-the-art machinery currently used in local industries. At the time of the application, Hockmeyer Equipment Corporation, with manufacturing headquarters in Elizabeth City, had announced an expansion of 90 employees. Hockmeyer had communicated to COA both the need for incumbent worker training and the eligibility of new workers trained on this equipment to be hired directly into higher-level machinist positions at the company. Golden LEAF funds were used for the purchase of a CNC multi-tasking lathe and a coordinate measuring machine/laser scanner.
