Grant Helps Texoma Workers, Companies And College Be Competitive - KAUZ-TV: Newschannel 6 Now | Wichita Falls, TX

A Texoma college is getting a big chunk of money that will not only help some local workers and companies be more efficient, but will also help the college grow.

This is all thanks to a grant from the Texas Workforce Commission. The TWC has given Vernon College more than $400,000 through a "Skills Development Fund Grant." With that money the college will train workers and new hires from the companies Tranter and P&WC Component Repairs. It can also order pieces of equipment for training. This builds the school's capacity so it can take on more students and upgrade machinery. College officials say the institution actually needs grants like these to stay afloat.

"The state fund continues to go down in community colleges so any other way that we can benefit from tuition money or equipment money we're always going to look into that," said Shanna Munson, the Associate Dean of Career of Technology Education at Vernon College.

Vernon College will train 343 workers from the two companies. Those trained include welders, machinists and blenders. They'll be able to learn new skills and train with new technology. That way they could be more competitive or apply for better positions. But it's not just the workers who benefit from this. The companies will get their employees trained without any additional costs, plus well trained workers make better products.

Munson says, "It helps those companies stay marketable to be able to produce the product that they need to not just regionally or locally but a lot of the companies are local global companies."

Tanya De Jesus, Newschannel 6