cameron county/matamoros - blue - The University of Texas at ...

UTB-CBIRD Report: “At The Crossroads” Education & Training 50
attain master’s and doctorate degrees in Criminal Justice, to become a
U.S. Deputy Marshal, and “one day to be a powerful influence to all young
females of school age.”
⇒ Javier Garcia, a graduate of TSTC’s Biomedical Engineering Program, has
been named recipient of a $3,000 Tech Prep Scholarship to the University
of Texas-Pan American. Garcia has worked for several years in the health
field and currently teaches Biomedical Engineering Technology students at
TSTC.
Closing the Gap through Regional Cooperation
The Lower Rio Grande Valley Counselors’ Network and the Lower Rio Grande
Valley S-TEAM (Support Team) Network provide thousands of educators each
year with labor market information as well as training in counseling and
implementation techniques to support Tech Prep RGV’s strategic initiatives.
Recognition programs for teachers and counselors contribute to the success of
these initiatives. Annual curriculum-alignment meetings allow hundreds of
secondary and postsecondary educators to meet and discuss curriculum
offerings and to plan for the coming year.
Communities Career Ladder (C²L) is a technology-based education and training
program based on the collaborative efforts of the Cross Border Institute for
Regional Development (CBIRD), IC 2 Institute, The University of Texas at Austin,
Cameron Works, Inc., WorkFORCE Solutions, Human Results Institute, and Tech
Prep of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc. The objectives are:
⇒ To leverage computer and information technology and regional resources to
create a workforce training system for the perpetual improvement of
workforce quality standards to satisfy the employment needs of regional
established and start-up businesses, and
⇒ To provide the tools and knowledge for the unemployed and underemployed
to find employment and climb the career ladder to positions of greater
responsibility and value-added work.
The C 2 L program has three major components: (1) knowledge-base
management, (2) education and training delivery systems, and (3) data and
information about a pool of motivated learners. C 2 L is different from more
traditional training programs in that it is:
⇒ Regional and targeted for a binational population of Hispanic- and Non-
Hispanic students
⇒ Focused on training talent to help retain and grow existing businesses
as well as to attract new businesses
⇒ A perpetual program in that participants are expected to continually
train for continually advanced positions
⇒ Concerned with participant empowerment where the employee is the
catalyst for increasingly meaningful career advancement
⇒ Technology-based in that CIT (computer and information technologies)
are used to match and develop skills to opportunities as well as to train
and educate the client
Una Region -- Un Futuro
Limited funding is the
main obstacle to Tech
Preps’ growth. “We have
done a lot of listening to
local people, identified
issues that the local
stakeholders brought up,
devised strategies that the
local stakeholders said
were needed, and then
worked on implementing
those strategies. However,
our loss of school-tocareers
funds has caused
us to cut staff, which
means we have fewer
people to go out and work
with the educators and
fewer people to work
directly with students and
parents. We also need
more money for
subcontracts to school
districts and colleges to
serve as incentive funds
for them to implement the
programs we design.”
Patricia (Pat) G. Bubb
Executive Director
Tech Prep RGV