Editorial: Texas A&M facility at port promises valuable training for skilled workers in Valley

Texas A&M University has had a presence in the Rio Grande Valley for a long time — its AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco marked its 100th year serving the South Texas agriculture industry and earning renown with its development of the Supersweet 1015 onion and research of the Texas Rio Red grapefruit and other South Texas cash crops.

To many people, however, the university’s life in the Valley began in 2018 with the establishment of the TAMU Higher Education Center at McAllen.

In that short time, however, the university has shown its commitment to improving the lives of South Texas students — and their community as an extension — with investments in programs that offer career and study options while addressing worker shortages in vital fields such as engineering and more recently nursing and other medical fields.

The latest development came last week with system regents’ approval of a $30 million advanced manufacturing training facility at the Port of Brownsville.

The South Texas Workforce Development project will be built on 22 acres of port property, expanding facilities the university already has at the port, and will offer education and training in computer-assisted engineering, robotics and other state-of-the-art skills. Officials say their initial plan is to prepare 10,000 students to take high-skilled jobs at the port and other industries.

It’s a welcome announcement that should help address a drastic need for workers as well as provide many Valley residents the skills they need to fill those jobs.

Our country suffers a severe shortage of workers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, citing information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, last month reported 9.5 million job openings with only 6.5 million unemployed workers.

Those workers can’t simply walk in off the street and fill those openings, however. Many unfilled jobs require specialized training or knowledge, and many are in the high-tech industrial and engineering segments of the economy, where new developments are occurring rapidly in automotive, aerospace, energy and other industries.

Texas A&M is not alone in its cooperative agreements with the port and other industrial sites. Texas State Technical College also utilizes the port facilities, and South Texas College and Texas Southmost College have similar programs that work with Valley employers to help give students job-specific training that can benefit both the students and local employers. They and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley also have created strong medical residency and internship programs to help address our acute shortage of healthcare professionals. In addition, Valley school districts have established similar cooperative agreements within their career magnet programs that have helped students move more quickly toward certification and employment in fields such as firefighting and nursing.

At a time when millions of jobs remain unfilled across the country, it’s good to see that our educational institutions are responding to public needs to better serve their students, and their communities. cally, the port is advancing in areas ranging from shipping to metallurgy and shipbuilding.

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Texas A&M invests in port: $30 million training facility to be built on 22 acres