Gov. DeSantis puts $20M to train truckers and set up apprenticeship programs for trade jobs

Ron DeSantis.

Florida will spend more than $20 million to set up apprenticeship programs for trade jobs such as industrial technicians and heavy equipment drivers, as well as educating and training truckers, Gov. Ron DeSantis revealed Thursday.

The grant funds will give $12 million to the apprenticeship programs and $8.2 million to five state colleges to expand existing trucking education and training programs.

“If you look at the economy, there’s a lot of demand for traditional skilled trades and other things that require different types of training than maybe what you would get at the university,” DeSantis said at an event in Niceville. “Not everybody is going to be coding or involved in tech or some of this other stuff.”

The trucking grants will be distributed to the state colleges to increase commercial driver’s license training by up to 1,200 students per year.

Broward College will get $2.6 million to add 250 students; Northwest Florida State College will receive $1.5 million to add 250 students; Valencia College will get $1.3 million for 200 more students; Daytona State College will get $1.3 million for 200 more students; and the State College of Florida will receive $1 million for 300 new students.

DeSantis sought to address a shortage of truckers in the state by boosting funding for the programs last year. He said the state was producing 800 truckers per year through the education and training programs, and now it’s 2,000. The new grants will add to that total.

“We more than doubled what the state had been doing and yet we have more demand and so we’re able to meet that demand here,” DeSantis said.

The $12 million for the apprenticeship programs will pay for 3,200 apprenticeships or pre-apprenticeships and help 50 businesses across the state, with opportunities in trades such as heavy equipment drivers, electricians, construction, industrial technicians and fiber optic technicians.

“I’m a big believer that you learn more by doing than you learn by sitting in a lecture hall and listening to some professor bloviate,” DeSantis said.