CLEARWATER, Fla. — SPC Clearwater showed off a brand-new addition Wednesday — a state-of-the-art manufacturing lab featuring equipment students will not find on any other college campus in Florida.

  • Advanced Manufacturing Lab part of program offering course credit
  • Lab simulates much of what students will encounter in manufacturing facilities
  • Open entry/exit option available for students already in workforce
  • More Pinellas County stories

St. Petersburg College graduate Berry Anderson is heading back to class, and he told us he can’t wait to get his hands on the school's new equipment.

"I’m really excited, this is cutting-edge stuff," said Anderson.

The "cutting-edge" machinery Anderson can't wait to use makes up the new Advanced Manufacturing Lab on SPC’s Clearwater campus.

"We try to simulate what they would see in a manufacturing facility as much as possible," said Lara Sharp, Program Director of Engineering Manufacturing and Building Arts.

SPC boasts of being the only campus in the state with some of that equipment.

The Engineering Manufacturing and Building Arts program offers course credit for students.

"The idea is to train students on electromechanical or mechatronics, which is motors and control, robotics, automation, so a lot of the things that are in true advanced manufacturing right now," said Sharp.

"This program combines stuff that electrical engineers, mechanical engineers and computer people, information technology people, do all together," said Anderson.

There’s also an open entry/open exit option for students like Anderson already in the workforce who are looking to learn more.

"A student can start a class whenever they want, they self-pace through it and they exit out of the program when they’re ready," said Sharp.

"If I do well, then this will be a change in occupation for me, because this is the new face of the machine shop,” said Anderson. “What we did 30 years ago, hard, dirty work has been replaced by machines, so you need a higher technical level, higher skill level to do this."