Houston City College (HCC) is asking the Texas legislature for an appropriation of $50 million to fund a high-tech workforce center at its Katy campus in order to support industry needs including health care, HCC NW President Zachary Hodges told members of the Katy business and community steering committee on September 1. Hodges presented the concept to the steering committee on September 1 at the campus at 22910 Colonial Parkway in Katy.

“We need your help,” Hodges said. “We need to build the support within the community to get that done.” Hodges reminded attendees that HCC is not in the taxing district for Katy ISD. Until that problem can be solved locally, HCC needs state dollars, Hodges said.

HCC Katy – which is at its maximum capacity, Hodges said -- currently serves about 4,600 students, with dual credit enrollment reaching approximately 4,000 Katy ISD students. KISD students are earning Level I Certificates in areas such as real estate and medical scribing, while Katy ISD is looking forward to offering associate’s degrees. HCC is also expanding partnerships across the city.

HCC is now different, Hodges said. “Houston City College is not the same as Houston Community College was,” he said. “We are running as fast as we can to keep up with the high- tech industries in Waller County and Harris County in serving their workforce needs.”

Hodges listed many recent accomplishments for the community college system:

· HCC is ranked 32 out of 500 colleges and universities in the National Cyber League’s list of top cybersecurity programs.

· HCC continues to serve as one of three colleges across the nation leading the NSF AI Consortium, NAAIC, to train other colleges to develop AI programming and tools.

· HCC has furthered the partnership with SpaceX to train not only welders, but machinists and CNC operators.

· HCC just finished year one of a two-year $2 million dollar grant with Google to expand AI training across the region and into K-12 schools.

· This year marks the eight-year partnership with Apple for HCC in which HCC has received grant funding for hardware and software to deliver technology training. This partnership was recently highlighted at the Apple factory’s ribbon cutting in late August.

· Recently HCC held a graduation ceremony for the second cohort of Tesla apprentices that will work in operations and manufacturing technology at the new Tesla battery factory.

· HCC was just awarded $1 million dollars from the Lowe’s Foundation to deliver training in the construction trades.

· HCC, in partnership with the Greater Houston Partnership, received a $17 million grant from the Bloomberg Foundation to train high school students and adults in high demand fields.

· HCC is building out an aviation program and has received a $773,000 start-up grant.

· Outreach to industry and serving their needs. Tesla, Foxconn, NRG, among others.

· Expanding manufacturing to West Houston Institute and Engineering hub at Stafford to support aerospace engineering at UH Clear Lake.

· Growing engineering partnerships and has added engineering technology to the engineering program.

· Supporting all HCC Entrepreneurship programs for small business development.

Jordan Carswell, Director of the West Houston Institute (WHI), presented on overview of WHI, explaining how the institute develops both technical and interpersonal skills through innovation and hands-on learning. He emphasized the importance of students being able to “show their work” and shared examples such as a 3-D concrete printer that students used to learn programming, robotics, and architecture.

WHI’s work centers on three key areas:

1. Mindsets and skillsets

2. Innovation capacity

3. Experiential learning

The presentation also highlighted the IDEAS membership, which has included more than 3,000 members since 2018 from HCC, Alief ISD, and UT Tyler. Through the IDEAS Academy, WHI supports K–12 educators and brings makerspaces and hands-on innovation opportunities into classrooms.