Gov. John Bel Edwards kicks off $7.9 million project for Baton Rouge vocational technology facility

Gov. John Bel Edwards on Monday kicked off a $7.9 million project to fix up a north Baton Rouge vocational technical facility with the goal of better teaching industrial crafts for waiting jobs.

Walls will be removed and equipment installed at the Baton Rouge Community College Acadian Campus to upgrade instruction in welding, pipefitting, electrical and instrumentation, culinary arts, healthcare and other skill crafts. The plans also calls for Baton Rouge high school students, particularly those at Istrouma High School next door, to take the courses as well.

“This is a substantial renovation project that will not only enable the BRCC Acadian Campus to expand its very successful training initiative, but also provide more opportunities for the community and the city,” Edwards told officials from ExxonMobil, Formosa Plastics, and other industrial companies seated in the campus atrium on North Acadian Thruway in a low income neighborhood.

The state will sell bonds to provide $6.9 million. Private companies kicked in another $944,999 in funds and land. The total project is valued at $7,874,999. The project should take a year to complete and hopefully will be ready for the start of the fall semester in August 2018, said Monty Sullivan, system president for the Louisiana Community and Technical Colleges.

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