Berkeley County for Volvo Car Americas, Corporate Training Center

As part of the South Carolina Department of Commerce’s recruitment of Volvo’s North American manufacturing facility in Berkeley County, Santee Cooper and Thomas & Hutton Engineering engaged the programming and design services of McMillan Pazdan Smith to create a state-of-the-art employee training facility. The new two-story vocational education training center serves the automotive industry and neighboring community in a hands-on and technically-advanced learning environment. Located on a highly visible site near Interstate 26, the Corporate Training Center is adjacent to Volvo Cars of North America’s new global production manufacturing facility.

At 50,000 SF, the training center houses approximately 2,500 SF of a flexible simulated work environment allowing for reconfiguration as the automotive industry and associated technology evolves. The simulation training area contains three practical training bays with car-lifts and two additional bays with full-scale robots, allowing for a myriad of hands-on training scenarios. These car bays have direct access to the campus’ demonstration driving course. Four other car bays are dedicated to the finishing, painting, and visual inspection of the car’s exterior. The second floor contains large lecture rooms, administrative offices, teaming and collaboration spaces, a safety training room, and a car systems training lab with team breakout spaces.