OZARK - After touring the Enterprise-Ozark Community College’s Aviation Training Center this morning, Governor Bob Riley commented that no other state is doing more to prepare workers for jobs in the aviation and aerospace industries.

The same can soon be said for jobs in the shipbuilding and robotics fields, as Alabama is currently building training centers for those industries as well.

At the training centers, Alabamians can receive training to have the exact skills needed to fill good-paying jobs in these growing industries.

“No other state is doing this. We can offer job-specific, even company-specific training. It gives Alabama an advantage when it comes to recruiting new industry, and it also changes lives fundamentally for Alabamians who will have the skills needed to land high quality jobs,” said Governor Riley.

The Governor has emphasized the need to increase workforce training efforts in the three expanding industry sectors. Before touring the $10 million Aviation Training Center in Ozark on Tuesday, on Monday he joined state and local leaders to inaugurate construction of a new $12 million Maritime Science Center in Mobile to train workers to construct ships. Last year, he announced the state would build a robotics research and training complex at Calhoun Community College in Decatur to help the state attract new industry, support existing industry and train workers for high-tech careers in robotics.

The Aviation Training Center in Ozark is one of four such centers in the state. The others are located in Albertville, Andalusia and Mobile. The jobs students train for at the aviation training centers typically start at $21-$25 per hour, officials at the Ozark center said.

John Hamlin, general manager with Army Fleet Support, LLC, toured the Ozark training center with Governor Riley. He said his company has 3,800 employees “and we’re hiring every mechanic we can get out of this school.”

There are more than 300 aviation and aerospace companies located in Alabama, creating and sustaining 140,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state.