PERRYSBURG – Penta Career Center will be able to add a robotics in engineering technology program
(RAMTEC) with the help of a state grant.
The Manufacturing Technology Education Collaborative Statewide Advanced Manufacturing STEM/Career
Technical Education Consortium, led by Tri-Rivers Career Center, has received $14.99 million through
Ohio’s Straight A Fund.
This grant will allow nine career centers, including Penta, to expand and continue the vision of RAMTEC
in order to address the skills gap by preparing high school and adult students with advanced
manufacturing and engineering skills.
Penta will receive a $1.5 million share of the grant and will use the funds to renovate and provide
electrical upgrades in an existing but unused lab.
While planning is still in the early stages, Penta Superintendent Ron Matter said the RAMTEC program will
be something to expose advanced manufacturing students as well as welding students.
It likely will become a stand-along program in the future, and possibly could be added to the center’s
adult education programs.
It will also be "a great resource for local manufacturers who might need robotics training,"
Matter said.
Penta also will use the funds to provide a robotics camp for grades 6-12.
It is "a really great opportunity for Penta, staff and member schools," Matter said.
The money also will be used to purchase supplies and textbooks; offer professional development to
teachers; purchase a mobile trailer with mini simulators to take to area schools; and buy 3-D printers.

Equipment will come from FANUC America, Mechatronics Industrial Equipment, and Yasawka Motoman Robotics,
among others.
The other eight career centers, who are part of the RAMTEC Consortium, include: Tolles Career &
Technical Center, C-TEC (Career and Technical Education Centers of Licking County), Pioneer Career
& Technology Center, Miami Valley Career Technology Center, Portage Lakes Career Center,
Cuyahoga Valley Career Center and Great Oaks Institute of Technology.
The grant was one of 34 innovative and cost effective grants recommended by the Straight A Fund Governing
Board to be funded in the fiscal year 2015, according to a release from the Ohio Department of
Education.
The Straight A Fund is part of a $1.6 billion increase in state funding for education over the two year
budget cycle.