South Georgia Technical College announced on Oct. 20 that its John Deere TECH program has received the “College of Tomorrow Award” from John Deere. The school achieved the second highest national ranking of Gold.
“We are very appreciative of John Deere and the dealers for their support of South Georgia Technical College and this Agricultural Technology program,” said John Watford, SGTC vice president of Academic Affairs. “We value this input from John Deere and to realize that we were only three points shy of the Platinum designation will encourage us to strive harder to become the best program in the nation.”
SGTC partnered with John Deere back in August 2014. The goal was to provide budding John Deere technicians with the two-year associate degree program they needed to specialize in Agricultural Technology. After the first full year of the program, the school had been recognized as having the highest ranking in the U.S.
Under the John Deere TECH program, students can work with John Deere agriculture and turf equipment dealers across the Southeastern region of the country. The curriculum includes classes that focus on diesel engine systems, hydraulics, machine setup and adjustment.
Currently, there are 16 John Deere tech programs in the U.S. and five programs in Canada. The first class of John Deere TECH students are slated to graduate in December 2015.