By Pacific Island Times News Staff
Guam Community College has been awarded $1.2 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to renovate GCC’s recently acquired training center in Barrigada.
The renovation will modernize the GCC Workforce Development Center, to house GCC’s Work-Ready Boot Camps, focusing on maritime ship repair and other construction-related trade skills.
It is projected that the center will boost Guam’s economy over the next 10 years through the training of skilled workers in the high-demand maritime and construction industries. Improvements will be made to the workshop and training rooms to meet the growing demand for updated training equipment and practices.
The Workforce Development Center will train individuals to fill the highly-skilled, in-demand jobs projected over the next 10 years. The center will also upskill the current workforce for advancement in their careers.
“The new GCC Workforce Development Center allows the college to expand our work-ready boot camps to help meet the demand for skilled labor,” said Mary Okada, GCC president. “It gives our local workforce the opportunity to advance and build a better future while helping the island’s economy grow.”
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To date, GCC has held 23 work-ready boot camps, 12 of those within the past year, in response to the need to retrain and upskill Guam’s workforce for the post-Covid economy. The maritime ship repair boot camps alone successfully graduated 98 completers, a 91 percent completion rate.
As the only federal government agency focused exclusively on economic development, the EDA plays a critical role in facilitating regional economic development efforts in communities across the nation.
The financial assistance to communities encourages innovation and entrepreneurship in a way that works best for the community. Further, EDA allows communities experiencing economic distress to take control of their future and position themselves for economic prosperity and resiliency. (GCC)
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