Charlotte County breaks ground on new workforce training center; aims to be a pipeline to high-paying trade jobs and fill skilled worker shortage

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) — A new workforce training center is coming to Southwest Florida, and it could open doors for students and adults looking to break into high-paying industries.

The Southwest Florida Advanced Manufacturing Training Center is set to be built on an empty plot of land along Woodlawn Drive in Charlotte County. Construction began on Tuesday, as Charlotte County Public Schools broke ground on the project.

The center caught the attention of Jon Leonard, president of Affordable Roofing and Bullet Products, who traveled all the way from Fort Myers for the groundbreaking ceremony.

"I've been in the roofing business for 35 years, Affordable Roofing, and we decided to start manufacturing lots of roofing products," said Leonard. "We do it now in Fort Myers, but then we bought 5 acres up here in the industrial park, the air commerce park, and now we're breaking ground, kind of at the same time they're breaking ground, and we're going to need employees, so the vocational school's amazing, I think it's really smart."

Brian Granstra, director of career and technical education and career readiness for the school district, said it's more than just a school; it's a pipeline to real jobs.

"This will be a state-of-the-art facility for our advanced manufacturing, CNC and welding programs for Charlotte Technical College; we'll have state-of-the-art equipment to prepare our students for the workforce," Granstra said.

Mark Odell, business retention and expansion manager for the Charlotte County Economic Development office, said the need for skilled workers is only growing.

"Statistically, we're going to be at a huge shortfall for, in the trades overall, you know, whether it's welding, technical schools, drafting, all of it, and this is going to be the basis for what's going to go on as this whole campus, for workforce development in the skilled trades," Odell said.

Charlotte County Public Schools has plans in the works to expand the center's impact on the area. Officials believe the facility will transform workforce development in the region.

"We have economic growth; there'll be new jobs here, high-paying jobs for our residents and also be able to attract new businesses to our community to improve the quality of life for everybody," Granstra said.

The school district said construction of the center is expected to be completed by July 2027.