VERO BEACH, Fla. — Indian River State College wants to be the Treasure Coasts leading workforce pipeline and today the college broke ground on a new Advanced Workforce Training Complex to make it happen. The complex will close the regional skills gap and prepare students for in-demand jobs. Natalie Pringle, is an Indian River State College grad who attended the school for its reputation and job placement rate. “I was hired just before I even graduated in my field,” Pringle said. “I was prepared and ready to help people and students — and it was all thanks to Indian River State College.”
It’s results Indian river State College president Dr. Timothy Moore says the college is responding based on the needs of the region. And he adds the groundbreaking for the new Advanced Workforce Training Complex is going to do that for advanced manufacturing.
“We don’t have the people we need in order to sustain the economy and the lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to. And this is what this building does for us,” Dr. Moore said. “We have thought leaders at our major universities. We don’t have our workforce leaders coming out of state and community colleges. We are the workforce engine for the nation, this region — and the state of Florida. And we’re cost-effective. We can take anybody from where they are, give them the skills and then move them out the door where they can have a good living from where they want to work.”
The 50,000 square-foot complex to be complete in the spring of 2022 will bring advanced training and technology to technical career fields; including automotive, aviation and marine technology, welding, and HVAC, to name a few. Indian River State College dean of advanced technology Kevin Cooper says the location of the new complex is strategic. The complex is one of three buildings that form a triangle for advanced learning.
”Now we’re going into the 21st century and we’re teaching them very differently now. Where the students not only get the hands-on skills but they learn the skills of other fields to embed into the programs that they’re studying,” said Cooper.
The numbers support the demand for new graduates in technical career fields. Indian River State College has a 96-percent job placement rate.
To learn more about the new complex, visit here.