(GDN) — A new scholarship is unveiled as Wayne County marks National Apprenticeship Week. 

Craig Foucht, Executive Director of the Wayne Business and Industry Center at Wayne Community College, talked about the importance of apprenticeships at this week’s county board meeting.

Foucht says the college’s apprenticeships can have a positive impact on a person’s life by helping them not have to choose between school and work.

Commissioner Barbara Aycock says her family knows the value of apprenticeships as her grandson is taking part in WCC’s apprenticeship program.

Once the county’s National Apprenticeship Week Proclamation was approved, Foucht announced the new scholarship named in honor of the late Commissioner Ray Mayo.

Foucht says Mayo was at the forefront of apprenticeships with a program that started in 1982 and helped him produce his skilled workforce.

The Ray Mayo Scholarship will be awarded annually to a Wayne County resident so they can enter an apprenticeship program while attending school.

Full details on the new scholarship have yet to be announced.