ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Petersburg College Midtown is going to be opening a new type of education facility to get more people in the community hands-on training.
Construction is underway right now to build the Industry 4.0 Smart Lab.
This will be a manufacturing training lab that helps fill the gap among employers in the area.
While it's a blank canvas now, the lab will feature training in semiconductors, mechatronics, automation and robotics.
"We're one of three hubs for manufacturing right here in Pinellas County throughout the state, and so we're just very proud to be able to meet that need, and meeting the needs of what's new, the emerging technologies and AI," said Belinthia Berry, dean of workforce development and corporate partnerships at St. Petersburg College. "You're going to start to see not just semiconductor, but virtual reality, augmented reality, AI. All of our programs are up to date."
"We've been working with partners that identified a gap in terms of employment, and simply stepped in to fill that gap," Keron Jean-Baptiste, Provost of the SPC Downtown and Midtown Campus said. "So now we're going to be able to offer training to the community so they can land in demand jobs."
The state awarded SPC grants totaling more than $7 million to make this project possible.
