The College of Lifetime Learning and the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, located at Robins Air Force Base, have formalized a partnership expanding educational opportunities for the Warner Robins, Georgia, workforce while strengthening a longstanding collaboration focused on innovation, safety, and development.

Leaders from both organizations gathered recently to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that creates new opportunities for base employees to develop skills in areas including safety, leadership, and manufacturing.

“This partnership represents a shared investment in people, in learning, and in the future workforce of the state of Georgia,” Dean William Gaudelli said. “At the College of Lifetime Learning, we believe investing in learning is one of the most powerful investments an organization can make.”

The agreement builds on decades of collaboration between the Institute and Robins, with more than 200 base employees having earned Georgia Tech industrial safety and health certificates. Two Robins employees have also completed the Professional Master’s in Manufacturing Leadership, and two others are currently enrolled in the program.

“Renewing this partnership provides our team members with greater access to the latest knowledge and skills needed to solve the challenges of today and tomorrow,” Jake Dickson, technical director at Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, Robins Air Force Base, said.  “This agreement also gives our team the opportunity to apply modern leadership tools and techniques to complex challenges across our business and operations.”

Gaudelli noted that these efforts demonstrate what lifetime learning can accomplish for both individuals and organizations.

“When we invest in people, everyone benefits,” Gaudelli said. “Individuals gain new skills and opportunities, organizations strengthen their leadership pipelines and enhance their ability to innovate, and meaningful learning opportunities help create stronger, more resilient communities that are prepared to respond to the needs of the future.”

For Brig. Gen. David Miller, the partnership also reflects the Air Force’s commitment to continuous learning as technology rapidly reshapes the world.

“We are a lifelong-learning organization,” he said. “The opportunity to take every employee in our workforce — everybody from people who are driving rivets to engineers who are finding the innovative technology we need — and give them an opportunity to come [to Georgia Tech] to learn something new and take that back to the workforce is incredibly important.”

Miller pointed to the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex’s growing use of robotics and advanced manufacturing as examples of why the continued relationship between the two organizations matters. 

“Georgia Tech is such an important part of seeing what is around the corner,” he said. “What is that new technology, that new innovation, that we need to bring into our workplace?”

The MOU will also provide a foundation for identifying new opportunities for collaboration, as well.

“We have done a lot of great things in the past,” Miller said. “This opens the door for incredible things to happen. We’re incredibly proud to be a part of this partnership and very excited to see what our teams can do together as we move forward.”