HCC receives $4.2 million grant for apprenticeship programs
Sep 11, 2015
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has awarded Houston Community College $4.2 million to fund registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs in the emerging Healthcare and IT industries, as well as upgrade an existing program in plumbing occupations. HCC is the only college in Texas to receive the DOL American Apprenticeship Grant.
The program will serve 620 workers in the Houston Gulf Coast and Greater Dallas Regions in three years. CVS Health, JPMorgan Chase, CFI Mechanical, Inc., Humphrey Company Ltd., Gowan Inc. Mechanical Services, Gulf States Plumbing, Way Engineering, Joint Apprenticeship Committee, Texas Workforce Commission, HGAC, and Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) are among the project’s partners.
Through the grant funding, the partners will develop and provide apprenticeship programs in high demand industry occupations, which include pharmacy technologist, computer support analyst, system engineer, and infrastructure engineer. The plumber employer partners will expand and upgrade the digital training for current plumbing apprenticeship programs with a new course in the use and operation of digital layout positioning equipment. They will train 192 plumber incumbent apprentices to improve the digital/middle skills workers in the plumbing occupation.
“This collaborative grant is representative of the synergy between community colleges and industry aimed at meeting the workforce middle skills gap in high growth and high demand areas,” said Madeline Burillo, Ed.D, associate vice chancellor of Workforce Instruction. “By creating more opportunities and job-driven training initiatives through hands-on apprenticeships, where workers earn and learn at the same time, we are increasing the relevancy of training and education and building career pathways to secure jobs.”
CVS will employ 310 Pharmacy Technician apprentices in the Houston and Dallas regions and 75 pharmacy benefits managers apprentices in Dallas. HCC and DCCCD Pharmacy Tech programs will serve as pre apprenticeship and lead to state certifications. JP Morgan will provide apprenticeship training to 43 HCC AAS graduates from the Computer and Information Technology program. All employers will also provide workforce curriculum and skills competencies required for the proposed apprenticeship framework.
“Through our Centers of Excellence model, these efforts further expand apprenticeship opportunities with clear job progressions and enhances the competitiveness of businesses by enlarging the pool of highly-trained workers,” said Burillo.
To learn more about programs offered at HCC, visit hccs.edu/programs.