Texas Work Force Commission awards 4 job training grants to area schools

BORGER, Texas (KFDA) -The Texas Workforce Commission awarded four job training grants to area career and technical education programs.

Through funding provided by the state legislature, Jobs and Education for Texans or JET grants go toward funding equipment used for training students for jobs in high-demand occupations.

• Frank Phillips College received a $212,515 grant for equipment to train 50 students as diesel mechanic specialists
• Amarillo College received a $346,340 grant to train 80 students as industrial machinery mechanics
• Perryton Independent School District (ISD) received a $232,225 grant to train 141 students as welders in partnership with Frank Phillips College
• Sunray ISD received a $172,810 grant to train 50 students as welders in partnership with Amarillo College

“This is a win-win for the area because they get to supply their programs with the needed equipment that they need to train this workforce,” says Alberto Trevino III, Texas Workforce Commission Commissioner Representing Labor.

“The employer is our customer as much as a student. We want to make sure that we’re graduating students that can regenerate revenue for an employer from the very beginning, and if we can close the gap, the amount of training and cost that one of our employers has to pay for students to do that, and we feel is an important part of our mission,” says Tamara Clunis, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Amarillo College.

Given the numerous high-demand industries in the Panhandle, these institutions are prioritizing the skills that their communities need in the workforce.

“It gives us the opportunity to have that pipeline and that pathway for a future workforce, and as people get older and they retire, we need the younger workforce to come in and take their place in those positions,” says Trevino.

The goal of the JET grant is to be able to ensure students are getting not only experience but hands-on experience before they enter the workforce.

“It is extremely important for students to have the hands-on experience so that it is not just something that they have learned out of a book. It is actual real-life experience where they have run into and have had hands-on on that equipment so that they are able to help best in the industry,” says Cassi Laxton, Provost of the Allen Campus, Frank Phillips College.

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