Santa Fe College will share in a $10 million federal grant that will be used to provide training and education for the manufactured construction industry in Florida. Miami Dade College Kendall Campus will serve as the lead fiscal agent for this consortium in partnership with Santa Fe College, Polk and Seminole State Colleges.
This grant is part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program within the Department of Labor (DOL). SF will receive approximately $1.47 million in funding over the four-year project. Kurt Strauss will be the project director along with Justin MacDougall as the co-director for this grant project. John McNeely, Associate Vice President for CTE Programs and Jane Parkin, Director, Construction & Technical Programs will work together and oversee successful completion of this grant funded project which will launch in Fall 2015.
Leaders and employers in the industry will help with the training and advising related to the program and with hiring certified workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. This project has high level of support from local industry leaders.
This project is designed to deliver a blended program of skills, training, and education demanded by the rapidly growing manufactured construction industry which is comprised of manufacturers of modular buildings, manufactured housing, metal buildings, prefabricated trusses, precast concrete, structural insulated panels, panelized buildings and portable buildings. A very significant shortage of skilled workers for site-built construction, estimated at more than 2 million by 2017, is forcing a shift to off-site building and building component manufacturing that, while creating enormous employment opportunities, is also faltering as a result of the absence of training programs oriented toward manufactured construction settings. The Florida Training for Manufactured Construction (TRAMCON) program is designed to close this important training gap by providing a complete system of nationally recognized certification programs that will be tied to existing manufacturing technology and construction management programs and two and four year degree programs offered by Florida’s state colleges and universities. The program will offer a series of credentials to systematically train and educate the potential manufactured construction employee: pre-vocational, vocational training, entry level, apprentice, journeyman and supervisor certifications.