GRAND RAPIDS, MI -Stiles Machinery's woodworking education program is expanding its scope to enable students to earn college credit for select courses. At a special press briefing, Stiles Machinery also said Stiles Education will change its name to Stiles University.

The news was announced April 12 at the Executive Briefing Conference held in Atlanta.

A collaboration with Pittsburg State University enables select credits earned by Stiles University graduates to be applied toward Associates or Bachelor's degrees in Wood Technology programs, said Duane Griffiths, Director of Stiles University. Since its inception in 1990, Stiles' education program has graduated 36,000 students.

“Becoming a University was the next step for our education program,” Griffiths said. “Continuous learning is crucial to our industry. It is driven by technological advances and the training needs of our customers to optimize their production. This collaboration opens up many more doors for us to even further grow and develop our education and training to better serve the industry.”

The company said Stiles University is aligned to further develop affiliations with government agencies and institutions of higher education. Students also will continue to earn Continuing Education Units. For more information about Stiles University call 616-698-.7500 or email [email protected].