Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
The facility, to be built across from the airport, will help workers improve their skills.
By MONIQUE FIELDS
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 10, 2000
St. Petersburg Junior College has announced plans to build a $22-million job-training center in mid Pinellas County.
The school projects that 20,000 students a year will be trained to use the latest computer programs and learn innovative ways to manage employees. They will be taught in a three-story, 80,000-square-foot building scheduled to open across from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport in 2003.
Despite the program's ambition and promise, it has rankled officials at the University of South Florida, who said Thursday that the school had a similar plan that was ignored by Pinellas County officials and administrators at SPJC.
Emotions did not cool until Carl Kuttler, president of SPJC, and Bill Heller, dean of USF's St. Petersburg campus, talked by telephone late Thursday afternoon, and Kuttler offered to allow USF to participate in the program.
SPJC already has secured $6-million from the state for the building, and the county has tossed in another $8-million from its capital projects budget. The school is banking it will be able to get the rest of the money, $8-million, from state grants.
SPJC wants to build on the short-term corporate training programs it now offers in technology and management. Under the programs, which require less than a year of study, students receive training certificates.
Currently, 10,000 students take the courses each year. The school plans to eventually double that enrollment.
"You're creating a one-stop shop for business and education," said Lars Hafner, associate vice president in charge of SPJC'S College University Center.
When the new building opens, SPJC says it will train employees in strategic planning and how to develop marketing campaigns. Internet start-up businesses also will be able to rent space and get help in how to run their businesses.
Pinellas County will use half the building to house its community, economic and work force development programs, along with its convention and visitors bureau and the arts council. The idea is to pull departments together under one roof that can help attract businesses to Pinellas County, said Richard R. "Buzz" David, director of Pinellas County economic development.
"If we're able to provide support to keep trained workers available to our local businesses, then they can stay in business, expand and thrive," David said.
Which is why USF wanted in on the deal.
A few months ago, USF started pitching the idea of establishing a technology school in the county. Heller placed a 3-inch binder in the hands of county officials, outlining the proposal, and did the same with officials at SPJC. But no one bit.
Heller learned about SPJC's plan about a week ago and was disappointed with what he heard. Too few Pinellas residents hold bachelor's degrees, and SPJC's plan didn't offer any in technology, just training certificates. That, according to Heller, was short-sighted.
"There could be so much more."
Kuttler said he never heard of Heller's proposal. Instead, Kuttler said, it languished for 10 days in one of SPJC's offices. When he was briefed about it Thursday afternoon, Kuttler said he was "thrilled" about what he heard.
By late afternoon, Heller and Kuttler talked by phone. Heller said he and Kuttler would work together to ensure USF becomes part of the new program.
"I'll support that," Heller said, "but I think we can do more together than we're probably doing."