A partnership led by Hillsborough Community
College seeks to ensure the skills of Florida workers are as
modern as the microchips, metals and medical devices they make.
Thanks to a $500,000 grant from Workforce Florida, Inc., five
of the state’s 28 community colleges have joined together
to create the Employ Florida Banner Center for Manufacturing.
Other consortium members are: Florida Community College at
Jacksonville, Manatee Community College in Bradenton, Pasco-Hernando
Community College in New Port Richey and Polk
Community College in Lakeland.
Based at Hillsborough Community College’s Brandon campus,
the Employ Florida Banner Center for Manufacturing is one of
the first programs in the U.S. to develop curricula to prepare
students, workers and prospective employees for the new national
certification in manufacturing—the Manufacturing Skill
Standards Council’s Production Technician Certification.
Like the certification, new curricula developed this year by
the Employ Florida Banner Center will focus on knowledge and
training in four areas: quality assurance, maintenance awareness,
manufacturing processes and safety. All of the college partners
will become certified test centers for the national certification.
The Employ Florida Banner Center also is taking the statewide
lead in creating, coordinating and providing skills upgrade
training based on needs identified by Florida manufacturers.
The program expects to train its first 150 workers by this
summer.
Industry representation on the Advisory Council includes executives
from Colomer USA, Duratek Precast
Technologies, IsoAid, Jabil
Circuits, Florida Natural Growers, Manufacturers
Association of Florida and Tropicana Products,
Inc.
For additional information, click
here.
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