The building of Ave Maria University— and its surrounding town will create a need for construction workers. There are hopes those workers can come from neighboring Immokalee. Ryan Warner reports. Immokalee’s Bethune Education Center is training local residents with just that in mind. Last night, 20 students were the first to graduate from Bethune’s new Building Construction Trades Program. Administrator Dr. Leo Mediavilla says the grads got special training in heating, air conditioning, and ventilation work.

“They’re doing many things right now. Many of them might be migrant farm workers. Many of them could be looking for work. And so our goal was to be able to give them an opportunity to get some self confidence and some training, to learn more about the trades. And also to give them some tools so that when they went to a job site, they would be better equipped to get the job.”

Students underwent about 60 hours of workplace training. The Bethune Education Center is part of the Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology.