The Vision
The East Williamson Higher Education Center (EWCHEC) will be an extension of the educational successes of Temple College at Taylor and will provide a portfolio of educational and workforce opportunities for the citizens of rural East Williamson County. Part of the goal for the Center is to create quick and flexible responses to employer needs. An additional goal of the Center is to create strategic partnerships with area school districts, the Texas Bioscience Institute, Temple College, a state technical college, and various major universities. The Center's collaborative technology training model will allow it to leverage the strengths and successes of member partners while providing it the autonomy that is required to build a truly unique regional educational center for the 21st century.

The Center
The site will be a multiple institution campus located in East Williamson County designed to meet the academic and workforce needs of all East Williamson County residents. Memorandums of Agreement have been created and signed that will bring not only academic and technical colleges to the campus but possibly two universities as well. This kind of institution will be the backbone of Texas' workforce and development and can help the citizens of East Williamson County gain skills and knowledge needed to help with research and development, product design, and lights-out manufacturing. It is through innovative processes that concepts become creations. Whether students will want to work in design, testing or repair, the high skill, high wage programs will help the current and future workforce of East Williamson County.

Economic Impact
Regional Higher Education for East Williamson County: Numerous studies completed through the years note the positive impact of higher education on both state and local economies. General revenue and local property taxes provide the public higher education system with approximately $6 billion annually. The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts estimates that for every $1 spent by the state to educate our youth beyond the high school level, the return to the Texas economy is about $5.50.

Additionally, the spending and re-spending of salaries, as well as monies made available by students, endowments, grants, research and health care provides about one-third 1/3 of the more than $33.2 billion the state economy receives each year through higher education. The remainder is generated by greater earnings and productivity by graduates. Economic developers believe that new companies choose an area for expansion or relocation based on the quality of the local workforce. The EWC Higher Education Center will provide the workforce needed for this area's future growth.

This is the future of education and workforce training for East Williamson County. Under the banner of the East Williamson County Higher Education Center and its leadership citizens will be well prepared to meet the future.

The East Williamson County Higher Education Center (EWCHEC) will be a regional higher education center for East Williamson County with the goal of preparing students for college and workforce readiness.

Unique Selling points of EWCHEC

• The EWCHEC programs will be primarily career and technology oriented, with specific focus on advanced manufacturing and health care.
  
  
• The EWCHEC, with its Legacy Early College High School/Middle College designation, will serve students as early as the 9th and 10th grades, with college dual credit opportunities in the math and sciences.
  
  
• The EWCHEC mission, through our consortium of East Williamson County ISD partners, will provide college and workforce readiness with a focus on benefiting rural schools and the TEA "4 x 4" (4 science and math in 4 years) mandate.
  
  
• The demographics of East Williamson County support a higher education center in East Williamson County that will provide college and workforce readiness opportunities through multi-institutional partnerships on a single campus.
  
  
• The EWCHEC will address an ever-growing need to serve workforce training in Williamson County through multi-program partnerships with TSTC Waco. (Example: Bechtel)
  
  
• The EWCHEC will provide a university component and several Universities have expressed an interest.