Current and potential employees of area businesses can now improve industrial skills using state-of-the-art equipment recently received by the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School.

School director Harold Tilley said the school received production equipment valued at some $80,000 from Allen-Bradley, a subsidiary of Rockwell Automation. The company donated PLC5s, or programmable logic controllers, and accompanying software.

Six computers also were donated by the Regional Technical Education Council for use with the PLC5s.

The equipment will be used to train industrial workers in the operation of automated production equipment. Controlling the speed of production lines and monitoring systems performance are only two examples of the equipment's use.

"We feel very fortunate that Rockwell has donated the equipment to the vocational school because we are trying to train students with the best possible up-to-date equipment," said Tilley. "All of industry seems to be moving in the direction of computer-based operations."

Tilley said vocational school staff will use the equipment primarily to train Industrial Consortium employees. The group of 15 local industries was formed several years ago to help employers meet their manufacturing needs, he said.

The donation will allow the school to develop a hands-on PLC class to support equipment the consortium uses in educational plans, said Jim Copeland, high-tech inside sales engineer with Rockwell Automation.

In addition to on-site and off-site training for consortium members, training also will be offered to the general public to increase the pool of skilled potential employees. The move to computer-based operations will increase the need for employees who understand the equipment, said Tilley.

"It will increase the need for a more highly-skilled employee," he said. "We're filling that need by providing the training."