JOPLIN, Mo. — A Joplin campus is celebrating five years in operation. The Advanced Training and Technology Center, or ATTC, hosted a ribbon cutting for the milestone on Thursday. Speakers pointed out the school and partner incubator have had strong success offering programs to upskill workers in need of a job — and getting brand new businesses off the ground.

“In the past five years, we’ve had around 34 businesses come through the training center, start up. 23 of those have graduated; we have several that are still here. But that approximately equates to about 150 net gain jobs for the Joplin area,” said Travis Stephens, Joplin Chamber.

“What else is needed – surgical tech. So we’re able to ramp that up. We thought we might have eight students, we have 18. So the need is there. And we’re going to produce them. Get them out into the hospitals where they’re needed, very quickly,” said Dr. Katricia Pierson, Crowder/ATTC President.

The facility also continues to offer long-standing programs like IT, advanced manufacturing, and advanced welding.