Education/Training The regional business community benefits immensely from the close relationship with area educational institutions. Along with the University of Virginia, a major driver of the region's economy, two community colleges, a vocational technical center and the soon to be built Center for Advanced Technology in Culpeper are available to help meet the needs of employers by providing job and technical training, as well as other post secondary educational programs. • The University of Virginia: With nationally recognized medical, law and business schools, the university, with an enrollment of almost 19,000, can be a major resource for businesses located in the region. Besides research in medicine and engineering, which is often conducted in consort with area companies, the school continues to seek ways to partner with both the private and public sectors to advance the economy of the broader community. • Piedmont Virginia Community College: PVCC has a total annual enrollment of approximately 7,000 students taking degree and non-degree courses. The community college works closely with area businesses through such programs as the Business Education Roundtables (BERTs) to identify needed skill sets and then to design the training programs that will meet specific operational requirements. State Farm, Sperry Marine and SNL Financial are among the companies that have partnered with PVCC. • Germanna Community College: With a total enrollment of more than 5,000 students, GCC serves the northern part of the region from its Locust Grove Campus in Orange County. In the process of fulfilling its mission of providing post secondary education and supporting area employers to meet community needs, the college has initiated a project to construct the Germanna Center for Advanced Technology in Culpeper. • Germanna Center for Advanced Technology: The 39,000 square foot facility is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and occupies approximately 34 acres of a 100 acre site to provide high quality conferencing and specialized training for the benefit of both residents and employers. • Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center (CATEC): CATEC provides technical training to area high school students and offers career academies in partnership with PVCC and other groups and organizations in the region.