CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Albemarle County Public Schools was named by Governor Youngkin’s office the recipient of a share of $6.2-million worth of state Growth and Opportunity Virginia (or GO Virginia) grants.

GO TEC Career Pathways is a partnership in Albemarle and Greene County and Charlottesville City schools toward expanding the pool of qualified workers “by increasing career exploration opportunities in targeted industries” in the region, according to the ACPS grant application.

Local, state, and federal leaders in some cases, have been involved in a number of local economic development announcements and groundbreakings over the last several months ranging from the large AstraZeneca project in northern Albemarle, to an Afton Scientific expansion, to a Virginia Wine Collective incubator and tasting room, to development in the Intelligence and National Security Innovation Acceleration Campus (INSIAC) at Rivanna Futures, among other projects.

“The purpose is to make certain that Virginia is prepared for the types of jobs that come available within the Commonwealth and here in Region 9 in central Virginia,” ACPS spokesman Jason Grant told Cville Right Now.

This particular $1.016-million grant will combine with more than $767,000 from the three localities to build Career Connection labs in the middle schools as well as provide teacher training in the lab instruction.

Governor Youngkin’s office announced, “The labs will introduce students to high-demand skills through modules in IT coding and networking, automation and robotics, precision machining, electrical and mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, metrology, biotechnology, and welding.”

Grant noted the school systems are also partnering with local employers, “to offer facility tours and deepen students’ career exposure”.

The grant application sent to the state asserted this program begins training as the region invests in five target industries: “biomedical and biotech, financial and business services, food and beverage manufacturing, IT and communications, and light manufacturing sectors”.

“Obviously we’re seeing these types of jobs, tech jobs, come forward and the biggest thing to drawing and being able to grow industry sectors is making sure the workforce is prepared for those jobs,” Grant said. “That starts in the public school systems, to make sure our students are exposed to what these types of jobs are, thinking about what are the skills necessary, the equipment, the connections to the industry.

“That’s what this lab does is to start that process until the time they do graduate from the public school system.”

Albemarle and Charlottesville leaders have emphasized how economic development initiatives, including AstraZeneca project, provide opportunities to work and live in our community.

“I think the career level jobs that are available to people of all ages are really going to be important because many of our young graduates move away to get good employment,” County Board of Supervisors member Ann Mallek said. “Also for people who are changing jobs in their 40s or 50s, they now have another opportunity to get into a career ladder in health sciences.”

Charlottesville Mayor Juandiego Wade said he got his start “as a dishwasher in a research lab as a 17-year-old right here at UVA.” He hopes these new developments will offer similar employment paths to a new generation of area young people.

“We are really excited about this,” Charlottesville Mayor Juandiego Wade told Cville Right Now. “Big projects like this, it’s going to be the largest plant in the whole world. … It’s going to create a lot of opportunities for jobs for high school students, for training workforce for the community college, and all of that has an impact on the City of Charlottesville, so I’m excited.”

“I just retired as a career counselor doing workforce readiness, and I see a lot of opportunities in companies like this for the City of Charlottesville and this whole community for outside jobs it can create,” Wade said. “It could be everything from people providing services for them, to grocery stores, to catering, to providing all types of services for them, so we’re excited about it.”