Nothing is as important to the future of the economy of Nacogdoches as our ability to provide local employers with a skilled and reliable workforce in sufficient numbers to meet their requirements. The quality of our workforce is far-and-away our most important attribute. We must do everything we can to ensure that it remains an asset, and not a liability, and that requires constant and continuous training.
The challenge for communities like Nacogdoches is to ensure that our young people have the job skills necessary to enable them to get good-paying jobs and participate in the American Dream. We must also ensure that our local businesses are able to find workers with sufficient skills, and in sufficient quantities, to enable those businesses to continue to be successful in Nacogdoches County.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2020, roughly 65% of all new jobs in Texas will require at least two years of post-secondary education and 1-2 industry certifications through technical schools, military community college, or industrial certification training.
The
Nacogdoches County Commissioner's Court and County Judge, in partnership with the
Nacogdoches Economic Development Corporation and representatives from the local business community and education establishment, are working to establish a Technical Training Center in Nacogdoches that will provide bankable job skills (i.e., welding, hydraulics, HVAC, electrician, automotive technician, petroleum technology, nurse’s aide, automotive technology, etc.) to non-college bound students; to provide a technical training facility for local companies that will also serve as a conduit for state workforce training incentive programs; and to provide targeted adult education training classes for citizens to improve their education and skills. In addition, the Center will offer GED and English as a Second Language courses.
Our servicing community college,
Angelina College, is located 45-minutes away in a neighboring county, a distance that limits its access by local employers and high school students. Angelina College has agreed to operate and maintain the Technical Training Center in Nacogdoches if we provide them with the physical facility.
In addition,
Panola College in Shelby County has agreed to partner with Angelina College to offer programs (such as Petroleum Technology) and classes at the Nacogdoches Training Center that Angelina College does not currently offer at its main campus. Nacogdoches County is located at the edge of the Haynesville Shale, the largest proven reservoir of natural gas in the U.S., and skilled workers in this industry sector are in huge demand by the oil and gas companies.
We contracted with an outside consultant to conduct a formal
Needs Assessment, completed in February 2010, which validated the requirement for the Training Center.
In addition, Impact DataSource (Austin, TX) performed an
Economic Impact and Job Creation Analysis, which was competed in June 2010. According to the report, it is projected that the Center will support $485 million in economic activity in the Nacogdoches County area over the first 10 years of existence. In addition, the Center will support 73 area jobs with annual salaries of $3.53 million.
Students who graduate from the Nacogdoches Technical Training Center will enter the workforce with the skills for higher paying jobs. An analysis of the first 10 years, which assumes 60% of the Center's graduates will remain and work in Nacogdoches Count, projects an estimated cumulative earnings of nearly $460 million.
We determined that we will need a 25,000 sq. ft. facility with a mixture of classrooms and shop/lab space and Nacogdoches County, as a demonstration of its commitment, has purchased a former beer distributorship facility that can be retrofitted into a Technical Training Center at an estimated cost of roughly $3.5 million. This compares to an estimated cost of $5.5 million to build the facility from the ground up. In addition to the significant cost savings, it also will give new life to an existing unused building.
The Nacogdoches office of the Texas Workforce Commission has also requested permission to co-locate their offices in the Technical Training Center, offering yet another synergy in our overall goal of helping every Nacogdoches resident fully participate in the American Dream through a good-paying profession with a future.
In addition to the economic and fiscal impacts provided by the Nacogdoches Technical Training Center, the institution provides socioeconomic benefits for the community, state and nation. The socioeconomic benefits to higher education can be summarized by a better life for the individual and reduced costs to society. The more education an individual obtains, the more likely they will become a productive member of society. The individual will earn more income, pay more taxes, volunteer and vote more frequently and avoid prison. A more productive personal life results in a reduction in the need for public assistance and a reduction in law enforcement and incarceration costs.
NEDCO's goal is to be in a position by the beginning of 2011 to either break ground on a new facility or retrofit an existing building.
