A year after the Texas A&M RGV Advanced Manufacturing Hub TRAIN program was created to help develop a skilled workforce to serve local industry, several new memorandums of understanding with community partners were announced recently.
Among them, Brownsville, Los Fresnos and Point Isabel public school districts have MOUs with A&M to offer training aimed at preparing high school students for jobs in the manufacturing sector.
At a Sept. 26 press conference at the Port of Brownsville announcing the partnerships, Brownsville Independent School District Superintendent Rene Gutierrez said it’s all about having the workforce to meet the needs of future employers.
“We want to make sure that our workforce is ready for the jobs that are coming in to this area and also to make sure that companies look for this area to build and settle in,” he said. “Our students are going to benefit the most by having those jobs.”
The Legislature in 2021 made funding available for Advanced Manufacturing Hub for the purpose of developing workforce skilled in advanced manufacturing techniques. Through the Hub’s TRAIN program, local community members receive the necessary training to go to be able to fill local industry jobs.
So far more than 3,000 certificates have been awarded in courses in various aspects of manufacturing. The training is provided at no cost to students. Partnering with local schools is another aspect of the TRAIN program. Also among the new partners is Cameron County, whose employees will now have access to the training.
County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. said it’s an opportunity for county employees to enhance current skills plus learn new ones, which will benefit the county and prepare employees for other job opportunities countywide.
Again, the program will be free to county employees and will include training in OSHA relations, heavy equipment, process improvement, FEMA, cyber security, manufacturing and emerging technology. Professional skills courses will also be offered, as will leadership supervisor certification, he said.
Treviño conceded the new training could enable some county employees to seek employment elsewhere, but said it’s worthwhile in the long run.
“Not necessarily that we want to lose anybody,” he said. “We want to make our employees more skilled by this resource that A&M is committing to Cameron County, Brownsville and the Valley as a whole. … It’s a cost benefit, right? We want our employees to be more marketable and also better trained, because they also will provide better service for us here at the county. Overall we should be enhancing our county personnel and all of our county employees countywide.”
“We recognize that the future of Texas is our people, and more specifically, the people of South Texas,” said Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp. That is why the Texas A&M System is so deeply dedicated to communities of the Rio Grande Valley and the TRAIN program.”
