For 19-year-old Ajay Miles, choosing Gwinnett Technical College over a traditional four-year college was a decision based on his career goals. Miles, who works at a Toyota dealership and previously graduated from Maxwell High School of Technology’s automotive program, is now in his first year as an automotive student at Gwinnett Tech. He believes the two-year degree will expand his skills and job prospects.
“This will give me that broader range that I’m looking for in case I do move away — because with me being so young, I don’t know how long I’m going to be in the general area — to give me that range of cars like this versus a different car instead of it being on one specific (vehicle make),” Miles said. “It helps me be able to know exactly what I’m looking at.”
Miles is among 15,689 students at Gwinnett Tech who were visited by U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler on Monday. The visit aimed to observe how technical colleges are preparing new workers and to emphasize the importance of career-focused education.
Chavez-DeRemer and Loeffler learned about Gwinnett Tech’s partnerships with local schools and businesses, including Mercedes-Benz, which trains service workers for Atlanta-area dealerships. Chavez-DeRemer described Gwinnett Tech as a model institution: “These are best practices, we’re seeing it, it’s proven, it’s tested,” she said. “We’re bringing the next generation, middle schoolers and high schoolers, and getting them excited about working with their hands, building something that people want and going home to their families at night with more money in their pockets.”
The officials toured programs in automotive technology as well as cybersecurity and gaming development.
Loeffler and Chavez-DeRemer highlighted the Trump Administration’s focus on expanding apprenticeship opportunities for skilled labor jobs. Since January, more than 185,000 apprentices have started training through over 1,800 new programs nationwide.
“There is an executive order by the president to have 1 million active apprentices across this country to build back America, manufacturing, any of the trades, any of the private sector as well,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “Eighty-four percent of the jobs that have been created since this president took office have been in the private sector.”
Chavez-DeRemer also noted strong job placement rates for Gwinnett Tech graduates: “We heard it right here on the shop floor (after) five semesters, a technician coming out of (Gwinnett Tech’s Mercedes-Benz program) can go right to the floor at Mercedes-Benz earning anywhere from $85,000 up to $200,000 a year,” she said. “You can’t tell me that is not going to provide for their families, be able to buy a home, provide for their children. That’s what the American workers want.”
Loeffler pointed out that while many associate her agency with supporting business owners directly through various programs, workforce training is another important way they help small businesses succeed: “We’re talking about how do we bring more resources to bear for them to recruit and train workers because it is a limiting factor in terms of their success,” Loeffler said. “So we’re working across the administration to bring these programs to bear and make sure they know what’s available.”
She added that there are currently around 600,000 manufacturing jobs needing skilled workers nationwide. Small businesses account for nearly two-thirds of new jobs in America and represent 99% of all U.S. companies.
“That’s why I’ve partnered with the labor secretary, my good friend Lori Chavez-DeRemer,” Loeffler said,”to ensure from this administration’s point of view, that there is nothing more important to this country than American industry, the American worker and our military. None of that can be achieved without skilled labor.”
Gwinnett Tech President Glen Cannon called hosting federal officials “a testament to what our faculty staff and students are doing.” He added: “We are not thinking just about Gwinnett and Fulton…anymore… We used to think nationally. We’re thinking globally now. Our goal has been to put Gwinnett Tech on the global map when it comes to professional education and career education.”
During their visit’s conclusion in Miles’ classroom—where students were preparing for a lesson on car battery diagnostics—Miles expressed surprise at meeting members of President Donald Trump’s administration: “It was like ‘That was not what we were expecting,’” he said.
He also spoke directly with Chavez-DeRemer about his experience at Gwinnett Tech: “These programs are very good and helpful for … people who what they want isn’t sitting at a desk or doing something with like math or social studies or something like that,” Miles said.“These programs can help people who want to make a career doing something with their hands or physical work.”
