Members of the workforce development community in Stanly gathered Tuesday evening at the Stanly County Agri-Civic Center to connect with potential students and workers at the Stanly Academic Career Exploration event.

The event came through a partnership between Stanly Community College (SCC), Stanly County Schools (SCS) and the Stanly County Chamber of Commerce funded by a Federal Perkins Grant.

Other partners who helped make the event possible included the economic development commissions of both the city of Albemarle and Stanly County, the N.C. Works Career Center.

Middle and high school-age students and others from the community learned more about available career opportunities through the various vendors in attendance. Companies like Michelin, Bayada, Preform Line Products, Monarch, United Protective Technologies, Atrium Health, Lucky Clays Farms, Garmon Mechanical, BRS Construction, Service King and others from the private sector presented information to students and parents.

Several door prizes were given away to students who registered for drawings including an I=Pad, gift cards and a drone.

SCC also displayed a number of virtual reality-based simulators, allowing attendees to simulate welding for a NASCAR team, spray painting cars in the auto restoration field and operate heavy machinery.

Jeff Parsons, the Associate Vice President for the School of Advanced Manufacturing, Industry, Technology and Trades, said the event was to help people in the community “to understand and know what kinds of businesses and job opportunities and career opportunities really are in and around Stanly County.”

Parsons added the ACE event also was designed to help SCC and SCS to show parents and students the various training both offer which “can prepare (students) to go straight to work.

“(People) don’t have to leave Stanly County to be successful,” Parsons said. “There are lots of opportunities here, a lot of which people don’t know are there.”

Tuesday’s event, Parsons added, also shows the various types of companies which offer employment opportunities for students coming out of school.