ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 In a room with more buttons than a pilot’s dashboard, Jose Rivera shows prospective students different training systems they will learn in two new SMART Tech courses.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this room is going to be one of the newest labs for the program that we have here at SPC,” Rivera said.<\/p>\n
Rivera is one of the instructors. Each box-like system teaches a different manufacturing skill.<\/p>\n
\u201cPneumatics, AC\/DC electronics, robotics,” said Rivera, listing just a few.<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg College Dean of Workforce Development and Corporate Partnerships\u00a0Belinthia Berry said those courses will lead to employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd not just any job, a high skill, high wage job,” Berry said.<\/p>\n
The equipment is all to support SPC’s SMART Tech program, which is offering a variety of certifications.<\/p>\n
\u201cSemiconductor, mechatronics, artificial intelligence, your robotics, your technician-type courses that are in your advanced manufacturing,” Berry said.<\/p>\n
Two new courses starting in February include electronic board assembly operations and robotic and semiconductor technician operations.<\/p>\n
For SPC student Kalon Houston, who spent his 20s working in the culinary world, these skills equate to a future with more financial stability.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives you an opportunity to find, skill-set a job that people are paying you that 20 threshold or more. Like as soon as you get the degrees for it,” Houston said.<\/p>\n
But the biggest selling point for these new courses at SPC \u2014 they are all free. They are funded through the Florida Job Growth Grant.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the state says, you know what, we’re going to give scholarships to everyone for the first two years. And so we’re in our first year all the way up until next year of 2027. All of our courses are free,” Berry said.<\/p>\n
For Houston and others, these free certifications are a step toward finding more than just a job. He is on the hunt for a career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s good for people to know that, like, it doesn’t really matter your age or what route you took in life. Like, it’s never too late to take another route,” Houston said.<\/p>\n
Coming later this year, SPC said it will also launch an Automated Production Technician Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 In a room with more buttons than a pilot’s dashboard, Jose Rivera shows prospective…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[4996,274,113,3075,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,1576,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-135692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-app-education","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-erin-murray","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pinellas-county","14":"tag-st-pete","15":"tag-st-pete-headlines","16":"tag-st-pete-news","17":"tag-st-petersburg","18":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","19":"tag-st-petersburg-news","20":"tag-tampa","21":"tag-technology","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}