West Valley high schoolers to get advanced manufacturing teaching facility

• The governor's office is pushing schools, community colleges and universities to develop programs to quickly train workers.

The big picture: Western Maricopa Education Center (West-MEC), which provides career-technical education courses for West Valley high schools, broke ground Tuesday on a 16,500-square-foot building at its northeast campus.

• It will include an advanced manufacturing lab, a cleanroom and a 2,000-square-foot vehicle bay for teaching electric and hybrid car repair.

What they're saying: "The demand for [these industries] continues to grow so we wanted to ensure we had a top-of-the-line space for our students and enough courses to account for the next generation of workers," West-MEC superintendent Scott Spurgeon said.

What's next: The building is expected to open by next school year.