By Melissa Trevizo
San Jacinto College is implementing a $12 million Texas is Information Technology (IT) apprenticeship grant from the Department of Labor to train 5,000 workers in IT fields.
“The goal of this grant program is to accelerate the expansion of apprenticeships to new industry while promoting the expansion of apprenticeships across the nation and increasing the apprenticeship opportunities for all Americans,” said Dr. Sarah Janes, associate vice chancellor for continuing and professional development, San Jacinto College, and grant lead. “We are excited to partner with Alamo Colleges, Austin Community College, and the Dallas Community College District on this project.”
Together with national industry partners IBM Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation’s IT-Related Occupations, Rackspace, Cerner Corporation, and Cisco Systems, and locally Intuitive Machines, the College and its partners will train 5,000 apprentices and pre-apprentices over 48 months.
“We are finding that graduates are leaving institutions with a degree but not finding work because of their lack of experience,” said Janell Hills, San Jacinto College project director, apprenticeship training. “Apprenticeships give students a chance to work full time for outstanding companies, while gaining experience to address that middle skills gap.”
Students interested in the apprenticeship program will attend the College full time while also putting in full-time hours at their employer. To build partnerships, Hills has attended the aviation/aerospace and IT advisory meeting to discuss the apprenticeship model to employers who may be interested in exploring apprenticeships as a workforce solution. Hills and Kevin Morris, dean of business and technology, and Dr. Roger Watkins, department. chair of business and computer technology, are working together to create flexibles schedule to ensure the workload is manageable.
“We want to make sure that we are setting up our students for success,” Hills said. “They will receive 144 hours of instruction and work a minimum of 2,000 hours over the course of their apprenticeship. Our goal is for each one of those to be meaningful and educational.”
The first cohort of students for the grant will start in spring 2020. To learn more about the Texas is Information Technology apprenticeship grant, contact Janell Hills at [email protected].
