Tarrant County College Gets $462,352 to Train 164 Workers for Two Local Employers
State Skills Development Fund grants will train technicians for a beverage packaging company and a wind power firm in Tarrant County.
Tarrant County College will train 164 workers for two local employers under state Skills Development Fund grants totaling $462,352, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday. Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Joe Esparza presented the awards at a ceremony at the college's South Campus.
Who gets trained
The two grants are:
$282,392 to train 104 workers at DrinkPAK II LLC as batching technicians, electro-mechanical technicians, forklift drivers and packaging technicians.
$179,960 to train 60 workers at GEV Wind Power US LLC as composite repair technicians.
"These grants will train 164 workers for high-pay occupations to meet industry needs and strengthen the Texas workforce pipeline," Abbott said.
How the program works
The Skills Development Fund is the state's workforce training grant program for businesses that want to train new or current employees. TWC works with community and technical colleges, workforce boards and the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service to deliver training built for each employer.
Since the program began in 1996, it has worked with more than 5,000 employers to upgrade or support the creation of more than 446,000 jobs, according to the governor's office.
"The long-term strength of our workforce depends on partnerships between education and industry," Esparza said.
A good week to train
The awards came the same day the state reported that Texas lost 11,100 jobs in September while still adding 154,300 over the year.
Grants like these work best when an employer has real jobs waiting and the college trains to that need. That is the right model: public money tied to specific workers and specific jobs. Earlier this week the state also funded job-training programs at 13 colleges.
Hero photo: Bob Salazar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0, cropped and resized.
