Tech college expansion brings new skills programs to the Cape
The expansion of the Cape Coral Technical College campus now includes skilled trade career options in five areas, with some of the programs starting with a waiting list.
A ribbon cutting to celebrate the expansion will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 29, at 360 Santa Barbara Blvd. N.
On Thursday, the first cohort of students will begin taking classes in the new state-of-the-art facility, followed by the other programs beginning soon thereafter.
“It’s been an awesome six years from scoping this out to working with industry leaders, traveling the state, working with legislators, the school board and school district staff,” Cape Coral Technical College Director Charlie Pease said. “We are really excited. We have learned so much through that process. We have been so blessed to be supported by so many stakeholders in the community — from the superintendent, to the school board, to district staff, industry partners, and community partners. It has been an amazing thing to see it all come to fruition. It has changed a little bit of course from how we initially envisioned it, but I think it came out better than we could have ever imagined.”
The five programs — building construction technology, welding, HVAC and refrigeration, automotive service and marine service are 10-month or 11-month programs that are full-time, day-time offerings. They typically run 20-24 students per instructor, roughly 120 students for all programs.
Pease said they are also looking into “amazing opportunities for evening programs.”
“It’s a blessing to the community. There is nothing like it with these types of labs. We are the only post-secondary institution in the entire City of Cape Coral,” he said.
Pease said they are required at the program level to have occupational advisory committees. For example, the new automotive program includes local automotive shops,. The service manager from Fred Anderson Toyota as well as some of the leads at Roger Dean Chevrolet are taking part.
“These are the types of people who we want to come in and have our students go to their facility and work with them,” Pease said.
Nortec has also been a great sponsor. He said in many cases they helped guide the program with hiring the instructor for the marine service program.
Open enrollment began in March for the new programs.
“I believe it was welding that filled in 45 minutes with a waiting list. HVAC filled quite quickly with a waiting list of 15 to 20 students,” Pease said.
The next open enrollment is on Oct 5, at 8 a.m. for the new programs, as well as the 15 other programs that are offered at the school. Open enrollment is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
“Certain programs will fill in the first hour,” he said.
There is an information session offered every Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. that provides a presentation, chance to ask questions and learn and tour the campus. Pease said the nice thing about their programs is a student leaves without any debt. The average program costs roughly $5,000 with some of the longer programs climbing to $8,000.
In 2020, they began conducting a needs assessment and scoping out the project for the expansion to bring skilled trades career in “a year training program” to the City of Cape Coral, Pease said.
“We didn’t have any funding at the time when it was allocated. We started traveling around the state and talking to industry partners and looking at data,” he said. “Ultimately, we determined that in order to add an industrial arts building, we needed about 30,000 square feet.”
The estimate for the building and state-of-the-art equipment was $15 million in 2021. That amount was placed into the five-year capital plan for the School District of Lee County thanks to the half-cent sales tax. The money was allocated for fiscal year 2022 to 2026, which started the prework and bidding for the project.
The initial plan was to build the facility in two phases on the back side of the Santa Barbara Boulevard property, where they have about six or seven acres of buildable land.
The concept was simple – add five new programs.
Unfortunately, Hurricane Ian hit in September 2022 after the contract was executed in August 2022, and completely changed the plans, as Hector A. Cafferata Jr. Elementary School, which was immediately adjacent on the south side of the site, had significant damage from the storm, as it rained for 10 to 12 hours straight in the building after the roof was torn off.
Pease said the silver lining for both schools was the district made the decision to demolish the building and move the Hector A. Cafferata campus to a new location by Embers Parkway and Chiquita Boulevard.
That move allowed the college to unify the two properties and work with the architects to build a complete “unified campus storefront on Santa Barbara Boulevard,” he said, which was exciting because the expansion is fully visible from the road.
In late 2023-2024 the design work and preconstruction were being worked on while they received the final green light to tear down Hectar A. Cafferata Elementary at the beginning of 2025.
The new price tag of the 30,000-square-foot facility became $25 million. Pease said the blessing was working with legislators to receive special appropriations of nearly $4 million for the cost escalation.
For more information about the college, visit capecoraltech.edu.
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com