PSC, Triumph could invest $12.3M into filling 'huge void' in aerospace workers
Tom McLaughlin, Pensacola News Journal
5 min read
With the growth of companies like ST Aerospace in Pensacola and the arrival of businesses such as Milton's Leonardo Helicopters, the aviation and aerospace industries have become huge drivers of economic development in this region.
Estimates provided by Florida's Great Northwest state that across the 12 county Panhandle region, the aircraft manufacturing sector has seen 49% growth in the last five years alone. The area is also home to businesses that manufacture aircraft and aircraft components.
But the development of a workforce qualified to conduct manufacturing, maintenance and repairs has lagged far behind the growth of the industry itself, due at least in part, according to Pensacola State College President Ed Meadows, to a two-year Federal Aviation Administration freeze on permitting new certification programs.
"There is a huge void of qualified workers in the aerospace work sector," Meadows told the Pensacola News Journal.
The freeze has thawed, though and at a Wednesday morning meeting of the Triumph Gulf Coast governing board Meadows told members that it appears Pensacola State College is being fast tracked to have an application approved that would permit the school to open the door to certifications for 421 new students.
Meadows and other PSC staff, accompanied by ST Aerospace Chief Integration Officer Bill Hafner, attended the meeting to request $12.3 million from Triumph to create an Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) industry certification program. Board members voted 7-0 to move the project forward by assigning staff to negotiate a term sheet outlining conditions under which a grant would be provided.
Plans call for the college to use the money to build a 25,000 foot training facility at Pensacola International Airport, across the street from the main campus at PSC. Funds will also be used to man the facility, equip it with state-of-the art materials and provide tuition waivers, material presented to Triumph Gulf Coast said.
While board member David Humphreys opined that 421 certifications seemed like "a drop in the bucket" with so many aerospace airframe and power plant workers needed, Meadows told him "you have to start somewhere."
"And this is a good place to start," he said.
Dual enrollment opportunities are to be offered under the certificate program and it is hoped other incentives can be offered to experienced workers and members of the military to help boost enrollment numbers and the number of quality of certifications earned.
Meadows said that PSC had begun hiring faculty and buying equipment for the new program before the FAA freeze was implemented, so, rather than wait for the training facility to be built, the college is going to start training as soon as the FAA comes through with permitting.
Hafner informed the Triumph Board that ST Aerospace has begun relocating "several activities" from its existing Hangar 1 to another hangar so that the program can get underway.
"What I'm saying ladies and gentlemen, is this project is moving forward and looking good," he said.
Visit Florida gets innovative program funding
It was a good day for Santa Rosa and Escambia counties overall.
Triumph also agreed to create a term sheet under which Visit Florida could be approved for $3.5 million annually over three years. The funds will be to be used to kick off a groundbreaking marketing program "spreading the benefits of tourism outside typical markets," according to Dana Young, Visit Florida's president and CEO.
Young told the board that the funding will be spent across all eight counties the Triumph Board was set up to serve. Those are counties, stretching from Escambia to Wakulla, deemed disproportionately impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and thus entitled to use of the state legal settlement dollars brought in after that disaster.
The idea was to use the funds, along with matching funds from member counties, to diversify the region's tourism appeal, market the region to new areas and encourage year round tourism.
"We want to build resilience into the tourism economy by promoting offerings beyond just the beach," Darien Schaefer, chairman of the Northwest Florida Tourism Council, said.
Bagdad Distribution Center gets green light
Santa Rosa County was also given a green light to create a term sheet that would open the door to the county receiving $7.1 million to purchase 44 acres off Garcon Point Road for construction of a 380,000-square-foot distribution and logistics center near the Interstate 10 exit.
The building will be owned by the county private sector company, which will provide $33.55 million for the right to lease the building from the county, paperwork provided to Triumph said.
One board member openly questioned the county purchasing land on which to construct "a spec building for someone else," and while Santa Rosa County Economic Development Director Shannon Ogletree conceded "it is a risk, yes," he also expressed confidence in the commercial market in Santa Rosa County.
"It all shows everything we've always said," he said. "We will build it, they will come. They are coming."
The county's Promotion and Development Commission and FloridaWest, along with Space Florida and LIFT Technologies, "a national manufacturing innovation institute," teamed up to propose the $6 million grant from Triumph to supplement private and public funding for a projected $21 million to $31 million endeavor.
They want to build a nearly 39,000-square-foot building on the campus to house offices and research and development activities of LIFT Technologies. It is projected the center will create 36 new jobs paying on average $113,000 a year.
In a pre-application letter put out in March, the applicants informed Triumph the creation of a LIFT Technologies Northwest Florida-based satellite facility will serve several roles.
Those include luring talent with the promise of employment, connecting rural and urban entrepreneurial hubs to industry sectors, and promoting North Florida manufacturing, logistics and distribution corridors.
