Alex Hertzer, Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition executive director, speaks during an open house Wednesday at Choffin Career and Technical Center in Youngstown about a new automated manufacturing program the center is offering. Behind Hertzer are, from left, James Alexi, a Choffin instructor; Youngstown City Schools Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor; Michael Saville, Choffin’s director; Joseph Meranto, a YCS board member and former Choffin principal; and Robert Kearns, the district’s chief of staff.

YOUNGSTOWN – The city may have once been a “desert” when it came to certain types of industries, but a new, innovative program Choffin Career and Technical Center is offering promises to add plenty of water to the local landscape, a top official says.

“It’s a big day for career technology in the Mahoning Valley,” Michael Saville, the center’s director, said.

A new two-year automated manufacturing program, complemented with a state-of-the-art lab, was the cause for a celebratory open house Wednesday afternoon.

The two-year program will provide opportunities for students to learn a variety of types of manufacturing that include hydraulics, robotics, mechatronics and electronics. After completing the program, becoming certified and earning proper credentials, the students will be poised to enter the manufacturing industry and launch into high-paying careers, Saville noted.

The program, which debuted on the first day of the new school year Tuesday, has 35 seniors and 15 juniors who will learn critical problem-solving, troubleshooting and other skills, he said, adding that it is expected to grow.

“There’s a job waiting for each one,” Saville added.

The new program also is courtesy of a $10,000 donation from the nonprofit Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, one of the career center’s biggest partners.

Concurring with Saville’s remarks was Alex Hertzer, the MVMC’s executive director, who called Choffin “a critical resource in our community.” The program will create real-life pathways and applications for students while paving the way for them to be marketable for high-wage careers, he said.

Among the high-tech equipment in the lab are several 3D printers, a few robots, a machine for industrial plastics and learning systems for basic hydraulics, electric relay controls, pneumatics, alternating and direct current electronics and measurement tools.

“I’ll have three different groups doing three different things at the same time,” James Alexi, a program instructor, said.

Also built into the program is a process to ascertain students’ interest and to have them align with what will be their career choices, Alexi added.

Hertzer also said that the MVMC could not pass up the opportunity to support the automated manufacturing program, and that he intends to return to see what the students are learning.