MCALLEN, RGV – South Texas College may offer workforce training programs for employees in Reynosa, Tamaulipas as soon as March 2017.
Earlier this year, Carlos Margo, dean of Industry Training and Economic Development, told the Rio Grande Guardian that South Texas College (STC) wants to have an international presence. He said STC intends to accomplish this in partnership with the Instituto Internacional de Estudios Superiores (IIES), a private education institution in Reynosa.
“Our contractive legal counsel at STC has given us the legal authority to do business in Mexico as a college,” Margo said. “That opens the door for us to further the agreement with IIES. We’re going to partner with them, use their facilities to provide workforce training–customized training to maquiladoras and other industry partners in Reynosa.”
In a previous interview with the Rio Grande Guardian, Margo said STC is going to provide workforce training in courses such as industrial automation, industrial maintenance and building maintenance.
“The preliminary forecast is to train several hundred [workers] per month,” Margo said back in March. “It depends on the response we get in the market. There is a definite need for training, based on the response we have hd from our international partners such as Kohler, GE and others.”
Funding for the workforce training program will not come from taxpayer dollars. STC will use private funding from the employers–the maquilas–to fund the project.
The STC-IIES potential partnership stems from their collaboration together with the Bi-National Innovation Conference, or Inno’. Since its initiation in 2013, the conference serves a community outreach for business and academia. Inno’ occurs annually thanks to the ties forged by Rosendo Martínez Gómez, rector of IIES, and Mario Reyna, dean of Business and Technology at STC. Margo said the idea of providing a workforce training program in Reynosa grew out of the discussions Martínez and Reyna initiated.
Speaking to the Rio Grande Guardian last week, Margo said STC and IIES are still working on the agreements and expect to make the official announcement that the two colleges are in partnership February 2017.
