Bowling Green Technical College provides educational and training services to 12,000 people annually.

Those services included training to 499 people since 2007 that was sponsored by the Barren River Area Development District, according to Phil Neal, provost of the school.

The BRADD funding comes through the Work Force Investment Act program it administers to dislocated workers or adults who don’t have a sustaining wage.

Neal talked Monday at the BRADD board of directors meeting about how the school is working closely with area industry to develop programs that industries need.

To do that, more than 171 industry representatives are consulted through the school’s advisory council.

With the council, the school makes “sure we are absolutely on mark” with the school’s offerings, he said.

BGTC for more than a year has incorporated an ethics curriculum into its programs.

“We are hearing more and more each year from companies having difficulty with work ethics,” Neal said.

“So we want to mimic what industry expects in terms of our attendance policy.”

If students are late, they are counted absent, and if they miss 15 percent or more of their classes, they can’t pass the course.

“We’ve had that in place for about a year,” Neal said.

Employers that have recent graduates from the school say they are already noticing a difference in the employees.

BGTC since 2009 has been awarded 58 KY WINS grants that it has used to offer training for area companies. Those grants, totaling $1.17 million, provided training for 5,372 people.

“That is money that companies didn’t have to come up with,” Neal said.

The grants actually offset a company’s training expenses by about 65 percent.

One of the newest grants will provide robotics training to General Motors employees, campus public relations director Mark Brooks said later Monday.

The technical college is a certified FANUC Robotics Center. The robots are designed for various industries in the region, including the automobile industry.

In this instance, GM employees will learn more about how to operate the advanced robotics being installed at the General Motors Bowling Green Assembly Plant, rather than traveling to Detroit, as would have typically been the case.

Neal said BGTC has focused its degree and certificate programs in five areas: the auto industry; transportation and logistics; health care; business services; and energy creation.

Each year, the school’s enrollment has grown, Neal said.

“We are growing, and our students are very successful,” he said.