Victoria College has received a grant from the Texas Workforce Commission's High Demand Job Training Program.
Victoria College will collaborate with Workforce Solutions Golden Crescent to further meet immediate regional employer needs for skilled employees thanks to a grant from the Texas Workforce Commission’s High Demand Job Training Program and matching funds from the Victoria Sales Tax Development Corporation.
“We are excited and grateful that this HDJT grant will allow us to provide scholarships to our students enrolled in power line worker and truck driving courses as well as our Law Enforcement Academy,” said Cindy Buchholz, VC’s Executive Vice President-Chief Academic Officer. “It will also allow us to purchase needed equipment and supplies in Power Line Worker, Vocational Nursing and Networking programs.”
The Texas Workforce Commission has dedicated $1 million to support collaborations between workforce development boards and economic development corporations to provide high-demand occupational job training in local workforce areas through April 2022. The grant awards provide a one-to-one match of local tax dollars up to a maximum of $150,000. By leveraging the match from economic development corporations, boards can support regional workforce training projects of up to $300,000.
In November, the Victoria Sales Tax Development Corporation Board adopted a resolution to partner with Workforce Solutions to accept applications for the High Demand Job Training Program from local training providers such as Victoria College.
After presenting the proposed training projects to the Texas Workforce Commission, Workforce Solutions Golden Crescent was selected to receive the grant, which will support Victoria College’s $149,899 training project.
The project’s goal is to also build long-term instructional capacity for ongoing workforce training by securing state-of-the-art capital equipment, noncapital equipment and supplies that will enable high-quality skills training for individuals during and after the grant.
“Through these collaborations with Victoria College, area training providers, Texas Workforce Commission and Victoria Sales Tax Development Corporation, we have provided the opportunity to leverage resources dollar for dollar from TWC to equip our region’s workers with high-demand skills while meeting the needs of area employers,” said Henry Guajardo, Workforce Solutions Golden Crescent executive director.