(RED OAK) – Texas State Technical College has partnered with an industrial consortium including Betafence, Cardinal CG, Cardinal Glass Industries, Kinro Texas, Inc. and The Sherwin-Williams Company to train 243 new and incumbent workers using a $527,400 Skills Development Fund grant.
Texas Workforce Commissioner Representing Employers Ruth R. Hughs presented the check to officials from TSTC, Betafence, Cardinal GC and Kinro Texas at a 3 p.m. ceremony yesterday at TSTC in North Texas.
Hughs said the North Texas area has much to be proud of.
“Your unemployment rate is 3.9 percent, which is well below the state average of 4.9 percent and the national average, which is at 4.8 percent now,” she said. “The area has an annual job growth of 3.6 percent, and just over the last year this area has added 109,900 private sector jobs. You’re seeing great growth, and that’s really a testament to all these partnerships that you have and the great work this community does.”
The Skills Development fund is one of the state’s premier job-training programs, keeping Texas competitive with a skilled workforce.
“Employers benefit because they get custom-trained workers, and workers benefit because they get that competitive skill training they need in any job in the marketplace,” Hughs said. “Last year, the Skills program served over 100 businesses and supported the creation of 5,500 new jobs and the retraining of over 10,000 workers in existing jobs.”
Roel Lopez, COO of Betafence, said the company is happy to be participating.
“We are very proud to get this opportunity because we believe in education,” Lopez said. “We are really putting a lot of emphasis on ensuring that our employees at the facility have a high skill in the kind of things they are doing. I support this program 100 percent. Tomorrow we have 18 employees that will be in the class. I’m very proud that they can continue learning.”
Workers trained will include 53 new hires, and 190 jobs will be upgraded. Workers will be from North Texas-area plants and will be trained in the areas of maintenance, mechanical and support operations. Training will be provided by TSTC instructors.
Upon completion of this training, business partners anticipate improved equipment efficiency, greater team member capacity to maintain and manage different systems, career advancement for team members, and increased capacity to move unfinished and finished products through a series of operations.
After completing the training, workers will receive an average hourly wage of $22.16, which is higher than the average wage in the area.
For more information on TSTC’s workforce training, visit www.tstc.edu.
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