Henry County is Virginia's very first ACT Certified Work Ready Community, according to Maurice Jones, Secretary of Commerce and Trade for Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Jones spoke Thursday morning at Eastman Chemical Company in Fieldale and was joined by several other local leaders.

"This is a great day for Henry County, and it's a great day for the Commonwealth of Virginia," Jones said. "What you've achieved here is a great achievement for Henry County, and it's a great benchmark for the state."

ACT is a national program that offers National Career Readiness Certification (NCRC) to employees in participating counties and cities. NCRC is a portable, industry-recognized credential that clearly identifies an individual's skills in reading for information, applied math and locating information.

What's a Virginia resort in Meadows of Dan have in common with a 10th century castle in Italy or an ocean property in Rhode Island? 

These properties are among the world's best designed hotels, according to the latest rankings from Travel and Leisure magazine. 

The Lodge at Primland in Meadows of Dan tied for first place, sharing the No. 1 spot with Castello de Casole, a castle on 4,000 acres in Sienna, Italy; and Ocean House in Watch Hill, RI. 

The 12,000-acre Virginia mountain resort scored well with the magazine's readers, with many giving the property high marks for its serenity, use of indigenous materials, its observatory and its ridge-top golf course laid out by architect Donald Steel. The resort also offers three tree-house cabins, built into the tops of big trees overlooking the Dan River Gorge. 

"This is another major achievement for our visionary family of owners who worked closely with the architectural team of CTC Design Studio Atlanta to create a lodge in harmony with the Virginia landscape," Steve Helms, vice president of Primland, said in a statement. 

Earlier this year Primland was rated one of the Top 10 Luxury Hotels in the U.S. by Trip Advisor and in the Top 25 Hotels in the U.S. by US News and World Report. It also moved up the Travel and Leisure rankings of Top 100 Resorts in the World by moving up to No. 23 and also being listed as one of the top five in the U.S. 

from Virginia Business

Research and development prospect Autonomous Marine Systems, that has received a $1.6 million Tobacco Commission grant to locate in the Southern Virginia Product Advancement Center (former Daystrom building) at Greens Folly, also has been named the second place energy winner of $175,000 in the first-ever Virginia Velocity Business Plan Competition.

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced Tuesday the winners of the competition that provided $850,000 to five companies in the bioscience and energy sectors that were looking to expand their business in Virginia.

Autonomous Marine Systems Inc. is a marine data company changing the way the world explores and studies the oceans. Using a patented low-cost, fully autonomous sailboat, Autonomous Marine Systems delivers persistent ocean intelligence anywhere around the world at one-tenth of the cost of existing services. The systems emit zero carbon dioxide and do not risk human life.

Autonomous Marine Systems supports development of the company's next generation Datamaran and was founded seven years ago by two Princeton educated engineers and businessmen, who are currently partnering with MIT, DARPA and a host of energy industries to develop a fleet of autonomous water craft to collect oceanographic data for the energy, defense and weather industries.

Gretna's Amthor International announced Monday that it will add 30 employees to its first- and second-shift operation.

The truck manufacturing company, which employs approximately 100 workers, will establish a training program at the center Virginia Technical Institute called Amthor University. All interested applicants for the 30 openings will be sent through the program for off-site training.

"Everybody gets on-the-job training but not specifically in my building," Owner and Marketing Director Brian Amthor said. "I'm able to do off-site training and not affect my current production."

The training will take about four to five weeks, lasting anywhere from 160 to 200 hours. Sessions covering welding, electrical, tank mounting and tank maintenance will begin Oct. 5 at the Altavista training center. The four courses will be staggered in start times, resulting in hiring taking place in October through November.

A new machine installed at the New College Institute (NCI) should help Martinsville-Henry County keep high-tech companies and attract new ones by ensuring that people can learn advanced skills they will need to work for the firms, local industry representatives, educators and others said Thursday when the device was unveiled.

The academic coater is a one-of-a-kind, roughly $1 million machine to be used by the Center for Advanced Film Manufacturing – a partnership of NCI, Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC), the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. (EDC) and Eastman – mainly to train people for jobs with Eastman and other performance film manufacturers.

The Center for Advanced Film Manufacturing is a 28-credit program intended to teach people the skills they need to make performance films, such as ones installed on windows to block solar radiation, with computer-run equipment. But the coater could be used by other companies to teach skills common to all advanced manufacturers, NCI officials said.