FORT PIERCE, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference Wednesday morning in Fort Pierce to award several grants, some of them in hopes to spur local workforce development by starting at colleges.
During the event at the Eastman Advanced Workforce Training Complex on the Indian River State College Massey Campus, DeSantis announced the following awards:
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- $4 million to Indian River State College to support the development of the Institute for Industrial Manufacturing and Producing Training.
- $4.9 million to Miami Dade College to launch new aircraft mechanic training programs.
- $2.1 million to Sebring Airport Authority to reconstruct and resurface about 3/4 of a mile of Webster Turn Drive.
- $3.5 million to Wakulla County for the development and construction of two new county-owned buildings at Opportunity Park.
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“These are jobs that I think are really meaningful. You know, some people talk about making things, like there are certain things that are made — you know, like T-shirts — in Vietnam; I’m not sure that you’d have a lot of people in Florida that would be lining up to do that, but when you start talking about advanced manufacturing, you’re talking about jobs where one person can support a family," DeSantis said. “This is something that’s really, really significant, so I’m glad that we’ve really become a growing center for manufacturing and we want to continue to do that as we go forward.”
Watch the news conference again in the video player below or by clicking here.