Corporate scholarship aims to train next generation of skilled trades workers at Lone Star College

While unemployment remains at a 50-year low, more than half of employers who need skilled workers can't find enough. They can cross their fingers and hope it gets better, or help train the people they need.

HOUSTON - If you've heard about the growing shortage of 'skilled trade' workers, Lone Star College is among those trying to bridge the gap with a scholarship program funded by a company that depends on that expertise.

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America Vasquez is almost halfway through Lone Star's electrical technology program. She's one of the dozens of students at the college's Construction and Skilled Trades Center who are studying to become electricians, HVAC and refrigeration specialists.

Each of them expects their new-found expertise will be put to work.

"After COVID hit, I really wanted to get into something that would secure my future; something that I knew was always going to be needed," says Vasquez.

By some estimates, more than a quarter of the current, aging, and short-staffed workforce will retire in the next 10 years, while demand will only grow.

That's why HVAC, fire, security, and building automation conglomerate Johnson Controls is trying to help fill the need. The company has awarded $100,000 to Lone Star for scholarships and supplies, to make it easier for students to enroll, study and graduate.

"It's beneficial to us, who operates in an industry that doesn't have these jobs," says Johnson Controls' Alim Adatia. "It's beneficial to the student, who now has a career path going forward that can be life-changing in a lot of ways."

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Already, 65 students have received scholarships that pay about half of their tuition for a two-year program that will equip them for almost immediate employment.

"It's extremely important for us to fulfill that demand that is out there, to supply this highly trained workforce that is needed out there," says Lone Star's Construction Technologies director, Osvaldo Caballero.

With an eye toward graduation, America Vasquez expects it will just be the beginning: she has grand plans to start her own business, one day.

"This is just a stepping stone," she says."You could go many directions, from here."

Johnson Controls says it plans a multi-year commitment to Lone Star College, which expects to fund about $400,000 in scholarships to train the next generation of skilled trades workers.