Ga. Piedmont Tech Launches Apartment Tech Program

Today Georgia Piedmont Technical College (Formerly DeKalb Technical College) launches a new program to address the growing need for maintenance technicians at apartment facilities in the region. The Certificate for Apartment Maintenance Technicians (CAMT) is the only such program nationally accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

“Property maintenance is essential to every apartment community, and it is the maintenance team that carries out this vital role,” says Richard Smith, vice president of economic development at Georgia Piedmont Technical College. The goal of the program is for the State of Georgia to be a pilot state to offer veterans a training program which will allow them to have the necessary skills to join the apartment industry.

The program is a joint effort between Georgia Piedmont Technical College (GPTC), the National Apartment Association (NAA), Georgia Apartment Industry Education Foundation (GAIEF), the Georgia National Guard  and the Certificate for Apartment Maintenance Technicians (CAMT). Students in the certificate program will be trained in a variety of areas that include diagnosing problems, preparing apartments for new residents and performing a variety of service requests.

The week-long class will begin January 23, 2011 at the DeKalb Campus of GPTC. Key players in this initiative are holding a day-long orientation session that includes presentations from not only the sponsoring organizations, but representatives from Post Properties and Mercy Housing Management Group. About 30 students will be in the inaugural class. Smith adds, “The need for skilled talent is at an all-time high and this pilot program is designed to help fill the need for maintenance technicians.” The pilot program this month is focused on veterans, but later sessions will be open to anyone interested in entering the apartment maintenance industry.  Organizers are using the pilot program to target military vets who need a pathway from serving our country in combat to gainful employment in a viable industry.

Georgia Piedmont Technical College, a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, promotes a student-centered environment for lifelong learning and development, encompassing academic and technical education for employment in a global community. The college has nine centers of learning in DeKalb, Newton, Rockdale, and Morgan counties. Georgia Piedmont Technical College currently has more than 5,000 students enrolled in diploma or degree programs and more than 9,000 in adult education classes.  Academic and Technical programs at Georgia Piedmont Tech cover more than 120 different occupations. For more information, visit our website at www.GPTC.edu.

Photo: Nearly 30 military veterans sign up for a week-long class in apartment maintenance.