Central Industrial Education Center Collection

The Industrial Education Center was established by the North Carolina State Board of Education in 1958 in order to provide post-secondary technical and industrial education. The goal was to create schools with flexible curriculums that changed based on surveys and studies of local industries. The schools would train students to have skills which would make them suitable candidates for the job opportunities available in the nearby communities. The Department of Public Education distributed detailed guides for the construction, staffing and curriculum that were to be made available at these centers. By 1962 there were twenty such Industrial Education Centers throughout North Carolina. These centers would ultimately be the foundation for the Community College System that was put into place in 1963.

The Central Industrial Education Center (CIEC) was established in Charlotte in 1959 order to meet the educational needs of adults in the community by providing technical and business training, pre-employment training, hobby and leisure classes, and opportunities to improve occupational skills. The CIEC was housed in the old Central High building on Elizabeth Avenue and was directed by Dr. Richard H. Hagemeyer, who also served as the assistant superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System. The CIEC was merged with Mecklenburg College in 1963 to form Central Piedmont Community College.