AMSkills workforce training and apprenticeship update

1:15:20Natasha Surewood. Thirty five eleven cat can bloom.

1:15:24Oh, okay. Oh,

1:15:26yeah. 3511, Katkin Bloom, Flor Lutz Florida 33558, CEO of AM Skills. Um, newly appointed. I'm just here to introduce myself. I've got a chance to meet most of you. Excited to see what we can do with the building and with the individuals and how much more training we can advance. Um We are uh already moving and meeting just yesterday with new build new business coming in, offering them opportunities of apprenticeship. We're reaching out. We are actively involved in two pay-for-performance grants from the Department of Labor that we're bringing money in for infrastructure build-out as well as shipbuilding and defense

1:15:57industry manufacturing. So we'll be looking forward to bringing that in as well. And advancing additional trainings in forklift training, electrical, which we just did our first boot camp with electrical training, two hires from that as of yesterday. I know Catherine will be excited about that one. And in additional HVAC plumbing and a shipbuilding defense manufacturing. Other questions?

1:16:17Natasha, what I really need you to do today, and I'm sorry if you're being bashful and shy, but I need you to talk about who you are and where you've come from and how

1:16:25you got

1:16:26here.

1:16:26One of my hardest things, but my um I am a fifth generation Florida, my great great grandfather, great-great-great-grandfather, homesteaded PascoGirl. Prior to that, I've been in, but prior to working with Andrew. Skills. I have been a K-312 principal at a private school. I have worked in education from everywhere, Busch Gardens, Moffitt, Cancer Center, but most recently with independent electrical contractors in Florida West Coast. I started in 2019 and took our program from a red owing money to we now had $800,000 in the bank and a million-dollar building. We had 200 apprentices and now

1:16:56have 700 apprentices across the state of Florida. Started two new chapters in Tallahassee and Jacksonville, contracts with the Pinellas Technical College, Pasco County School System, Polk County School System, Hillsburg Community College across the state, as well as sitting on the State Apprenticeship Advisory Council, the State CTE Council, and I sit as president of Florida Apprenticeship Association across the state. I also work with the Florida Commerce and the Career Source Florida grant for pay for performance from the Department. Of labor. In addition, Sitwit um Jobs for the

1:17:26Future, which is a national department intermediary, Manhattan Strategy Groups, which is the admin intermediary for the multi-state manufacturing, just announced yesterday. In addition, also travel across the country working on workforce development most recently, and the reason this doesn't scare me, it's in front of Congress with a five-minute time limit for the Department of Higher Education Workforce Development. Yeah.

1:17:48Yes, so we we have hired the best person in the state of Florida to uh take AMP skills to the next level. So I'm really excited to have it here. Super exciting. Um does anyone else have any? Questions or

1:18:00I'd just like to say that's quite a resume ripped right off. Uh so it's kinda like back to when we got a superstar like Bill Cronin to come in to to have these CEOs pick you. Um looks like did a did a great job. Yeah. There's exciting times. It's

1:18:15exciting. And I mean Natasha is a national expert on on workforce training and apprenticeships, um, recognized in Washington, um good friend of our new uh

1:18:25Commissioner Oakley.

1:18:26Commissioner Oducation, Henry Mack. And um I just am really excited to be working with Natasha uh going forward. So she's got a real passion for this, I can tell you that.

1:18:37Absolutely.

1:18:39Absolutely. If there's anything, feel free to reach out. Ready to add some more training over there and get it full and loud. Thanks, guys. And

1:18:46we have another speaker. Um I wanted you to uh hear uh Wonderful story. I've texted Danny Burgess, Senator Burgess. He's all about homeschooling. So I said, Danny, if you're free. Turn on the TV it's so that you can hear um this program that we have at AMSKills. So introduce yourself.

1:19:03Hello, my name is Dina Fox and I'm the founder and director of Class Source. We are in our 23rd year of a nonprofit serving the home education families in the Bay Area. We've worked with thousands of families and thankfully the Step Up for Students Scholarship and FTC UA. FEPUAFTC PEP program became a new method of meeting educational law in the state of Florida. This is the fourth year of the program. The program has allowed

1:19:33me to partner with vocational training experts. My first one and only one at the moment is AMSkills because they are excellent. And we're in our third year of that program. In the two years that we've had graduates from our program, our students have outperformed the public schools by 400%. Can you say that one more time? In the first two years of our program, our graduates have outperformed the public schools by 400%. The

1:20:04average 9 through 12 vocational student in the state of Florida gets one. Manufacturing certification. Our students in four semester earn six. The reason this works is that we've cut the red tape and parents are at the helm. The students take it because they want to and they are motivated. Our students receive, two of our students chose to apply for every Bright Future Scholarship. And for the first

1:20:34time, manufacturing students that are homeschooled have achieved the Cape Bright Future Scholarship. This is in the state of Florida. Florida. The first two. They're the first two ever that the industry knows of. I did not realize what a big deal this is because I'm very busy helping parents homeschool and setting up classes for my program. But I was honored to go to the Bama dinner, and apparently they were very excited about it because boy do I have a stack of business cards to call someday. But because I am the principal, I don't have time right now. Now. Um

1:21:05I wanted to tell you that home education is going nowhere. It is thriving and we have results. Not only did our students achieve that CAPE scholarship, they achieved the academic scholarship as well. But they're choosing to go into vocational fields because it is the future. I would love for you to come by Class Source at any time and see what we are doing there. The manufacturing portion happens at the Amskills facility in holiday on Fridays. But our classes

1:21:35are in person Tuesdays and Thursdays all day, and we have everything from soup to nuts going on. This year we also launch our dual enrollment partnership with Palm Beach at Linux University. And home education students will get to take dual enrollment classes in person with professors at our program. We are very excited. This scholarship has given us the means to enter the vocational field because vocational education is not cheap. And home education families are not willing to put

1:22:06their children into a system to get that vocational training that they are protecting their children from. Yeah. I would encourage you to really look closely at what you can do to support home education families in being the future workforce that you're looking for. Our students have become interns for Pasco County Utilities. We now have our first employee of Pasco County Utilities. And we also have several of our students employed in area manufacturing companies that they get

1:22:36the opportunity to meet because of AM skills. We want to expand this program beyond manufacturing into electrical and HVAC and every other realm that we can give them hands for because the home education family is looking for the old way of being. apprentice and Amskills has figured that out beautifully. Thank you so much for letting me talk to you guys today. And Burgess, hi. Jason says hello to you. Hope you're watching. I do happen to serve on the board for

1:23:06the Home Education Foundation, which is the lobbyist for home education in the state of Florida, and get to work with Tallahassee regularly. And it's a pleasure to get to talk to my local people because I know this is a this is where it really matters and touches our lives. Thank you. Thank you so much.

1:23:21Commissioner Starkey, thanks for bringing these two ladies forward and make this a time soon to make sure we're going to be able to do that. No, I didn't know. And I'll tell you what, I I

1:23:27want

1:23:27to get with Bill Crone and David Engel and um uh everyone else to to try to push AMP skills to go more of this training 'cause exactly we we've got a big project we're working on too, so Thank you.

1:23:39You know, I was I was listening, um I watched a reel, I think it was on X, and I don't remember who the gentleman was, but he was Uh discussing that he had just had a conversation with the CEO of Ford Motor Company and Ford currently has five thousand open auto mechanic jobs across the country.

1:23:56Five hundred thousand.

1:23:57Of five hundred thousand? Yes. Paying one a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year for a technician and they cannot find the people. And they are very, very worried. Very worried. So No. The whole country needs programs that can't scale.