School’s superintendent: Education the key to Cape Coral’s future
It’s no secret that the city of Cape Coral needs plumbers, electricians, masons and other skilled tradespeople to help build the overwhelming number of houses currently being built.
But once new residents move in, the city also will need first responders, chefs, salespeople, auto mechanics, medical personnel and other professionals to serve the area so that those new homeowners will be protected and won’t need to go over the river for goods and services.
For that, the city needs to educate people for in-demand jobs, which was the topic of the Cape Coral Construction Industry Association’s monthly dinner meeting at the Palmetto Pines Country Club on Thursday.
They also asked for help from the CCCIA members to make these first-class schools a reality, through funding or other means.
Charlie Pease, director of Cape Coral Technical College, and Todd Everly, senior director of the Lee County technical colleges and director of the Southwest Florida Public Service Academy gave members an overview of what’s happening at the technical colleges, the workforce training programs currently offered and gave a preview of what’s to come at the Cape Coral Technical College, which is set to undergo a massive transformation.
Everly said the objective is to give students who want to pursue a trade through a “career in a year” as an alternative to college and the potential debt that could result.
“We train somebody if they want to go into the trades, law enforcement, the medical field and get them trained in a year or less,” Everly said. “We use a clock hour system, where you have to be there for a particular amount of time. If the class calls for 1,000 hours, you have to be there for 1,000 hours.”
The problem has been that the city is growing and they can’t get people to go back to work, never mind keep up with the growth, Everly said.
Fort Myers Technical College has 24 programs in the middle of a major renovation which should be done next year. Their areas are medical, transportation, construction, manufacturing, hospitality and human services.
The Southwest Florida Public Service Academy is the only law enforcement and corrections, fire and EMS academy in the state of Florida. They also provide continuing education for police.
Everly said the demographics of police officers has shifted sharply in recent years.
“Most police were in their 50s, retiring but still wanting to serve the community. Since January, we have trained police from Philadelphia, New York, Boston… The average age now is 28 to 30,” Everly said.
Pease discussed the expansion of CCTC (the only college in Cape Coral) in seats and programs, which is set to begin as the renovations and expansion at FMTC conclude.
“We cover the white-collar areas like health care, technology, culinary, cosmetology and others,” Pease said. “We are the No. 1 ranked practical nursing school in the state and we have given thousands of free haircuts to veterans.”
Pease said he wanted to add the blue-collar programs to CCTC such as construction, the trades, automotive and boat maintenance, but the pandemic slowed things down. However, the wheels are being set in motion again for the addition of two buildings at the present location.
Also attending was Lee County Superintendent of Schools Christopher Bernier, who summed everything up.
“It’s not about world-class students, it’s about world-class schools. Because now people want to move here because they convince their employees to come with them in a role in our school buildings,” Bernier said. “We need you to join us, not with your wallets, but with your minds.”
To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com