CareerSource Central Florida’s CEO and President, Pamela Nabors, attended the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for Lake Technical College’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM).
This beautiful, high-tech facility reflects all that manufacturing has become and will be in the future. The CAM expands the capacity for training individuals in welding by triple, from 18 to 60, and brings to Lake County in-demand training for other careers in Fabrication, Machining, and Computer Numerical Control (or CNC) Programming, with cutting-edge equipment and software.
Advanced manufacturing is one of Central Florida’s High-Growth Industries. This means that it has been identified by the state and local partners – led by CareerSource Central Florida – as currently “in-demand” and as an emerging industry with projected growth: more positions will be needed in successive years, salaries for these positions will increase with demand, and as technology advances, the role of advanced manufacturing will continue to expand and evolve.
This year alone, Central Florida added 4,100 manufacturing jobs to the region, bringing our total number of manufacturing jobs up to 48,900. By 2025, the State projects the number of available manufacturing positions in the region will increase by 4.3%.
“This can be a game changer for Lake County,” stated Diane Culpepper, director of Lake Technical College. “We know that manufacturing jobs are high wage, and we know that manufacturing is coming back to the U.S. and coming back to Florida.”
In the first quarter of this year, there were 250 manufacturing companies in Lake County, employing a monthly average of 3,600 people earning an average annual wage of over $45,400.
As Lake and other Central Florida communities continue to diversify their economies by cultivating industries like advanced manufacturing, the ability to create, sustain and grow a local talent pool to meet the needs of these industries is emerging as the number one economic priority. And education is the linchpin.
