Indian Capital Technology Center

PROJECT PURPOSE

ICTC is requesting ARPA funding to pay for the Plumbing/Welding Building to be constructed at the new Wagoner County Campus of ICTC. Both of the programs will meet the quality standards of being high skill, high wage, and high demand. West Wagoner County and East Tulsa County are both experiencing residential and industrial expansion. Plumbers and Pipefitters are expected to see a 37% growth in job opportunities by 2025 and Welders and Cutters are expected to see a 55% growth in job opportunities. The welding program at the new campus will provide a much-needed resource for the Wagoner County students as they currently compete with students from seventeen other high schools for welding opportunities at the Muskogee Campus. This program will provide a much more cost-efficient training option than the for-profit welding schools in the Tulsa area which often exceed $20,000 for training that ICTC offers free of charge to high school students and for less than $3,000 to adults. The Oklahoma Career Tech system currently only has Plumbing programs in Midwest City and Alva. Lack of available training has created a need for plumbers in the high growth areas in and around Wagoner County.

EVIDENCE

ICTC has a proven track record of achieving excellent results in the areas of Enrollment, Retention/Completion, and Placement of students enrolled in full-time programs. Evidence of this success can be verified by receiving OKACTE Gold Star status in 9 of the last 10 years. ICTC has completed several major construction projects across the district such as completion of the Adult Health Campus at Muskogee and Welding Program at the Stilwell. ICTC works diligently to hire industry experts to teach full time programs and provide the administrative and professional support to ensure success.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

The primary county being served is Wagoner. However, both Muskogee and Tulsa County communities will benefit from the programs in both the area of training available, services provided, and revenue from taxes being generated. The Wagoner County demographics are skewed by the wealthier housing developments in the city of Broken Arrow which also are in Wagoner County. To provide a more accurate description the city demographics for Coweta, Haskell, Porter, Okay, and Wagoner were averaged. 28.6% of the population is minority and 16.8% live below the poverty line. The ICTC communities were affected by the pandemic just as the rest of Oklahoma. Non-essential businesses suffered much more than others and many had to close. Employees in the non-essential areas also relied heavily on assistance. Both the Plumbing and Welding programs will lead to essential high wage positions and not be affected by future pandemic outbreaks.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

ICTC has a well-established performance monitoring system. This project will adhere to both the ODCTE Follow-Up submission guidelines which are submitted annually and also the ICTC Levels of Excellence Incentive Plan. ICTC submits annual follow-up data to ODCTE to measure Enrollment, Completion/Retention, and Job Placement related to training. Similarly, yet on a much more stringent criterion the ICTC staff are eligible to receive financial incentives based on enrollment capacity, completion/retention, and job placement.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma