Community colleges play unique and important roles in their communities.

Usually more nimble than four-year universities, community colleges can quickly develop new programs to meet the immediate needs of the communities they serve.

That’s exactly what Alpena Community College has done by investing millions of dollars in grant funds to build a new Center of Manufacturing Excellence.

As News staff writer Temi Fadayomi reported in a recent story, the college used grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Michigan New Jobs Training Program to buy new welding and computerized numerical control, or CNC, machines for the new center.

Those machines will help ACC students train for the jobs of today — and tomorrow — right here in Northeast Michigan.

A skilled workforce is not only good for current businesses looking to hire today, but also is part of what companies look for when deciding which communities in which they want to invest.

So ACC’s investment in skilled trades training not only improves the lives of Northeast Michiganders, it also makes Northeast Michigan a more attractive place for potential investors.

Thank you, ACC, for investing in our community’s futures.