A-B Tech invests $1 million in career training for students

A-B Tech is putting more than $1 million behind a new push to move Asheville-area high school students into better-paying work close to home. The college’s ABM Works program is built around internships, pre-apprenticeships and career-focused training in fields where Buncombe County employers still need workers.

The regional effort covers Asheville, Buncombe County and Madison County and is backed by more than $1.04 million in grant funding. That includes $750,000 from the North Carolina GSK Foundation and $299,338 from Dogwood Health Trust. College leaders say the goal is not just to create another classroom option, but to connect students to real job paths in skilled trades, manufacturing support, health care and technical fields.

That focus matters in a county still trying to rebuild after Helene while also dealing with long-running labor shortages. Local employers have struggled to fill jobs that offer steadier pay and clearer advancement than many entry-level service positions, and A-B Tech is positioning ABM Works as a direct pipeline between school and those openings. The college has said the program is meant to help the next generation afford to live in Western North Carolina, a sharp reminder that workforce training is now tied to the region’s affordability crisis as much as to education.

The initiative is also designed to serve students who do not plan to follow a traditional four-year college route. A-B Tech already offers 30 to 32 Career and College Promise career-technical pathways, and the new funding builds on that system rather than starting from scratch. The college says its work-based learning model includes internships, special projects, mentoring, pre-apprenticeships, hybrid placements and registered apprenticeships, with support from ApprenticeshipNC and local industry.

The pipeline already reaches several Buncombe and Madison County schools. A-B Tech lists Buncombe County Early College on its campus, Madison County Early College, Buncombe County Middle College, Buncombe County Center for Career Innovation, Martin L. Nesbitt Jr. Discovery Academy and the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville among its partners. It also has a pre-apprenticeship program with Asheville High School centered on advanced manufacturing.

Debbie Cromwell, A-B Tech’s director of work-based learning, said ABM Works was modeled on Surry-Yadkin Works, which the college describes as North Carolina’s first multi-county work-based learning program. For Buncombe County, the test is whether that model can help students step into local jobs that pay better and whether employers can start finding the workers they need before the next wave of graduates leaves the region.