Tarrant County College District in Texas Receives EPA Job-Training Grant
Contact: Jennah Durant or Joe Hubbard at 214-665-2200 or r6press@epa.gov.
DALLAS – (May 27, 2015) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the Tarrant County College District in Tarrant County, Texas, received one of 19 grants for Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training (EWDJT) grants. Tarrant County College received $158,462 to train 57 students in wastewater treatment jobs. Nationwide, EPA awarded $3.6 million in EWDJT grants.
“EPA’s job training program advances economic development by creating job opportunities for workers to serve in their own communities,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. “Many graduates—including ex-offenders and veterans-- secure meaningful employment that protects the environment and promotes economic development in some of our neediest communities.”
Participants in the Tarrant County College program will receive training in basic wastewater operation, treatment, and collection; water utility safety and calculations; and wastewater lab work. Tarrant County College is focused on recruiting unemployed and underemployed area residents, including military veterans, for the program. After training, Tarrant County College will also place at least 45 of the graduates in environmental jobs.
The EWDJT program gives communities flexibility to deliver training that meets local labor market demands. Graduates develop a broad set of skills that improves their ability to secure, not just short term contractual work, but full-time, sustainable employment in the environmental field.
Since the program’s inception in 1998, EPA has funded 256 job training grants exceeding $54 million. More than 13,900 individuals have completed training, and of those, more than 10,000 have secured employment in the environmental field with an average hourly starting wage of $14.18. This equates to a cumulative job placement rate of 72 percent.
These grants support training programs that recruit, train, and place unemployed and under-employed residents of waste-affected communities with the skills and certifications needed to secure employment in the environmental field. Projects are funded based on the comprehensiveness of the training curriculum, the likelihood that graduates will obtain employment, strong public-private partnerships, and diverse community-based organization and employer involvement.
Grantees receiving funding include:
> Zender Environmental Health and Research Group (Anchorage) Alaska
> Fresno Area Workforce Investment Board, Calif.
> City of Richmond, Calif.
> Denver Indian Center, Inc., Colo.
> West End Neighborhood House (Dover) Del.
> Florida State College at Jacksonville, Fla.
> OAI, Inc. (Chicago) Ill.
> Merrimack Valley Workforce Investment Board (Lawrence) Mass.
> St. Louis Community College, Mo.
> CLIMB Community Development Corporation (Biloxi) Miss.
> The Fortune Society, Inc. (Long Island City) N.Y.
> Rose State College (Midwest City) Okla.
> Oregon Tradeswomen (Portland) Ore.
> PathStone Corporation, P.R.
> Tarrant County College District, Texas
> Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps (Racine) Wisc.
> Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board, Wisc.
> Coalfield Development Corporation (Wayne County) W.Va.
> Groundwork Providence, R.I.
For more information on brownfields grants, including EWDJT grants, by state, please visit:
For more information on EPA’s brownfields program, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields
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