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T
hree years ago, BMW Manufacturing
launched a bold initiative to develop
talent among its growing workforce. In
conjunction with three regional commu-
nity colleges, it created the
BMW Schol-
ars Program
to provide educational and
work opportunities for people interested
in pursuing careers in advanced manu-
facturing. Now, it’s going a step further,
giving these two-year graduates the
opportunity to pursue a bachelor’s
degree in Mechatronics.
“This is obviously a great opportunity for
the students, now full-time employees
of BMW that have graduated from our
Scholars Program,” says Duke Moses,
Apprenticeship & Associate Training
Supervisor for BMW Manufacturing’s
Spartanburg facility. “It provides an av-
enue for these former students to further
their education. It’s great to work with
schools like ECPI who are willing to step
up and provide this opportunity.” He’s one
of two company representatives that sit
on ECPI University’s Greenville Campus
Academic Advisory Board. These board
members help ensure curriculum is timely
and tailored to meet the needs of regional
employers.
To meet BMW’s need, ECPI University is
helping its workers complete their educa-
tion so they can advance to higher-level
positions. Under a newly-signed agree-
ment, graduates from Greenville Technical
College, Spartanburg Community Col-
lege, and Tri-County Technical College
can transfer their credits and enter ECPI
University to earn a Bachelor of Science
Degree in Electronics Engineering Tech-
nology with a concentration in Mecha-
tronics.
ECPI’s Mechatronics program integrates
electronic engineering with mechanical
engineering technology and computer in-
formation systems – all of the disciplines
that form the basis for advanced manu-
facturing. When BMW’s employees com-
plete the program, they qualify to take on
greater responsibilities, troubleshooting
robotic machinery, programmable control-
lers, and integrated systems.
The BMW facility is an
exciting workplace – and
it’s expanding. Currently,
the plant has approxi-
mately 8,000 employ-
ees, 1,400 robots, and
produces about 1,100
vehicles per day. In
March, the company an-
nounced it would invest
an additional $1 billion in
the plant over the next
two years, making it
the automaker’s larg-
est global-production
site. The expansion will
add 800 new jobs and
increase the plant’s
capacity by 50 percent
by 2016. This sort of growth makes the
BMW Scholars Program
all the more
important. There is currently a nationwide
shortage of skilled workers.
“Partnerships like these are essential, not
just here in South Carolina but throughout
the nation,” says ECPI Greenville Campus
President Patricia Meredith. “The skills
gap is growing wider by the year. Recent
reports from the Manufacturing Institute
indicate there are upwards of 600,000
unfilled jobs in advanced manufacturing,
all because there are not enough skilled
professionals to go around. For some rea-
son, people still have the mistaken notion
that manufacturing is a dirty, low-paying
job. If they saw what modern manufactur-
ing really looks like, they would leap at the
opportunity to be a part of it.”
A tour of South Carolina’s BMW plant
would certainly confirm that point of
view. “Within the automotive industry,
BMW is a true innovator, dedicated to
quality and precision,” says ECPI Univer-
sity Vice President Claudia Dreyfus. “At
ECPI University, we too pride ourselves
as innovators. We were among the first
schools in the country to identify the shift
in manufacturing technology and create
a program (Mechatronics) to meet the
demands of an evolving industry. It is our
privilege to partner with a company of
BMW’s stature.”
Like BMW, ECPI University is always
searching for opportunities to adapt and
improve as opportunities emerge. Most
recently, it became one of a select group
of colleges and universities to receive
in-kind grants of Siemens PLM Software.
Valued at $130 million, it is the manufac-
turing industry’s leading software, used
throughout the global manufacturing
industry to design, develop and manu-
facture some of the world’s most sophis-
ticated products, including automotive
vehicles. Says Dreyfus, “Everything we do
at ECPI University begins with one ques-
tion: ‘Will it help our students become
job-ready?’ If the answer is yes, we do
everything we can to make it happen.”
Greenville Campus Partners with
BMWManufacturing Co.
Automaker’s Scholars Program Allows Employees to Complete Bachelor’s Degree in Mechatronics
“It provides an avenue for
these former students to
further their education. It’s
great to work with schools
like ECPI who are willing
to step up and provide this
opportunity.”
– Duke Moses, Apprenticeship
& Associate Training
Supervisor for BMW MC
Photo courtesy of BMW Manufacturing Co.