What The New Age Workforce Looks Like

The need for workers to fill tech jobs is increasing, and it’s possible that supply will not be able to keep up with the massive demand. Even as jobs in various industries are being eliminated, new types of jobs are being created and expanded as technology moves forward. More than ever, it’s important that education puts a real focus on tech education.

Cleveland State Community College in Tennesee has received just under $1 million dollars in grant funding, as part of Governor Bill Lee’s GIVE grant (Governer’s Investment Vocational Education), and they’re using this grant to help students in a major way. 

The total grant funding will be given over the span of three years, and the total amount is $995,955. The goal is to use this grant funding to increase workforce development which the Governor says is a key component of the state’s plan for rural Tennesse. More specifically the plan  for Clevaland State Community College’s use for the grant funding is to “enhance its Advanced Technologies Apprenticeship Institute.” 

According to CSCC’s President Bill Seymour, this will be a major gamechanger for students: “If you attend Cleveland State, and you are enrolled in a work-based technological track for your education, this news will mean great things for you, this is a huge development for our students all across our counties”

In addition, the school will add five new programs to its Mechatronics program. These programs will include computer information technology, electrical engineering technology, engineering systems technology, as well as cybersecurity and electromechanical technology.  

Elected officials in Tenessee, had much to say about this grant funding being awarded to CSCC, and they all seem really excited about what this could mean for communities in Cleveland. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), who has been a member of the Tennessee Senate since 2013, had this to say about the funding, “This investment will increase opportunities for our high school students to complete vocational training and obtain a certificate not long after graduating from high school. When we invest in education and center our education system around the needs of students, we begin to build the kind of future that will provide a better life for the next generations of Tennesseans one individual at a time,”

This looks to be an incredible investment into the residents of rural Tennessee and hopefully will help to better prepare them for the current market for employment, especially as tech jobs in various industries are seeing a massive surge.

-By Lianne Hikind

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