Why an ARC?

The ability to provide skilled workers to industry as needed is a critical component of Florida's economic development efforts. Educational institutions and workforce development boards are the primary means to this end.

With aviation and space (or Aerospace) industries being a critical industry sector for economic development, Workforce Florida has chartered Florida Community College at Jacksonville and Brevard Community College to create the first of a statewide system of industry-driven training clearing houses known as Florida BANNER Centers (Business Assistance Now for New Economy Results).

Mission:

The Aerospace Resource Center [ARC] for the State of Florida is to become a one-stop shop for addressing the industry requirements necessary to keep our aviation and space workforce trained and educated for both current needs, as well as future trends, opportunities, and emerging technologies.

Purpose:

The purpose of standing up the Aerospace Resource Center is to develop a statewide system for focusing on significant and emerging training requirements for aviation and space companies currently located in Florida, as well as those contemplating relocation to Florida.

As Florida’s first Workforce Education Resource Center, this WFI and AWI collaboration represents the beginning of a statewide network designed to solidify and strengthen partnerships among the business community, public and private educational providers, and the public workforce system to coordinate a collective pursuit of Florida’s economic development goals.

The ARC’s focus is aviation and space education and training.  When fully mature, the cluster center will focus on:

• Curriculum development and curriculum standards
• Educational research
• Incubation of spin-off business opportunities
• Technical support to the air and space industry cluster
• Formalizing industry standards and workforce credentialing
• Training of skilled workers—from entry level to advanced—as required by targeted industries