Baytown’s Lee College District receives $1M grant

BAYTOWN – The U.S. Secretary of Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding a $1 million grant to the Lee College District to support the construction of a new 50,000-sf training facility, the McNair Training Center.

The McNair Training Center will help meet an increasing demand for skilled workers in the petroleum industry due to recent growth in the area. According to the grantee, employers are concerned that the region does not have the talent it needs to fuel this expansion.

The training center will house welding and pipefitting training programs, which are currently running at capacity on Lee College’s main campus.

The Gulf Coast Workforce Board indicates these are in-demand fields and projects annual openings of 830 welders, 520 pipefitters and 175 pipefitter assistants in the region through 2020.