(WACO, Texas) – Texas State Technical College is a catalyst for diminishing the skills gap in Waco and McLennan County, the chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission said at the Prosper Waco24 Summit held Thursday, Oct. 24.
“Find the school that does the thing that you need,” Bryan Daniel told city, education, health and social service leaders at the AC Hotel Waco Downtown. “If you want to get them (students) in the workforce, do it now.”
The summit’s panel discussions dealt with behavioral health, food insecurity, teacher shortages, mental health, youth, and other topics.
A panel session focused on building today’s workforce for the future.
Kacey Darnell, TSTC’s vice president and senior executive director of student learning, talked about The WorkSITE (Skills, Innovation, Training and Education) scheduled to open in early 2025 on Wycon Drive in Waco.
The WorkSITE is a $17 million, 34,047-square-foot building that TSTC will own and operate. The building is a partnership between TSTC, the city of Waco and McLennan County. The training facility’s purpose is to increase access to customized training and build a skilled workforce in the county. Prosper Waco will help recruit unemployed or underemployed people who need training to earn credentials for jobs that require technical skills.
Darnell said the Region 12 Education Service Center in Waco has loaned space for industrial maintenance training to take place until The WorkSITE opens. A cohort put together by Prosper Waco’s UpSkill Waco program recently finished training and earned seven industry certifications, a Silver Level certification from the Smart Automation Certification Alliance, and an OSHA-10 certification. One member of the cohort has already been hired by a local company, Darnell said.
Darnell said electrical, mechanical and pneumatic training is taking place now with employees at Graphic Packaging International in Waco.
“The students in the open enrollment programs are exiting out with the skill set that Waco employers will need, and they will stay in Waco and get hired by companies,” Darnell said.
Economic development is a united effort between the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, the city and county.
“The people on stage and the people in the room, I believe, have the same goal, and that is to advance the community of Waco and McLennan County to have the skills to meet the opportunity before us,” said Darius Ewing, Waco City Council’s District 4 representative. “We have an incredible opportunity in Waco and the Texas Triangle to be the most populous area of the country by 2050.”
There is a population now that needs jobs statewide. Daniel said 650,000 jobs are open in the state, but more than 620,000 people are unemployed.
Daniel said 90% of the state’s jobs are in 50 counties, including McLennan County. He said 35% of the jobs in Texas require a university degree, while 8% of jobs require no training after high school.
Daniel said a lot of high school students do not know what they want to do once they graduate. He said employers providing apprenticeships and internships can show the real-life aspects of potential careers.
This is the fourth year that Prosper Waco has held a community summit.
“Everyone can see how they integrate and see what we are really doing,” said Andrea J. Barefield, Waco City Council’s District 1 representative and vice chair of the Prosper Waco board of directors. TSTC is in Barefield’s district.
For more information on Prosper Waco, go to prosperwaco.org.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.
