Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday awarded more than $8 million through the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund, splitting the money between two state colleges and an airport, to help keep up with demand for skilled workers and larger jets.
The biggest chunk — nearly $5 million — is going to Palm Beach State College, where administrators plan to launch a training program focused on quantum technology and cybersecurity. The courses will run in eight-week sprints designed to get people into the workforce fast. Over the next decade, the college expects to enroll close to 1,000 students.
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Another $2.5 million is headed to Melbourne Orlando International Airport to expand its maintenance apron. That’s the concrete tarmac where planes get repairs. Right now, it’s tight. The expansion will create room for more military and commercial aircraft, and airport officials say they expect the project to generate 500 new jobs with salaries averaging between $75,000 and $85,000.
Broward College is getting just over $900,000 to grow its aviation mechanics program, known as AvMaX. The program is already a pressure cooker — students earn three technical certifications and 60 college credits, then can finish an associate degree with 23 more credits. So far, every single student who started the program stuck with it through the year, according to the college.
“Today’s investments will support high-demand regional and statewide needs,” DeSantis said in a statement, pointing to aerospace, defense and financial services as key industries.
Since 2019, the Job Growth Grant Fund has handed out more than $305 million. State officials say it’s created over 41,000 jobs and more than 32,000 training slots. The money comes from the state’s general revenue and is doled out based on proposals reviewed by FloridaCommerce and approved by the governor’s office. There is no legislative approval process for individual awards.
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J. Alex Kelly, Florida’s secretary of commerce, framed the grants as a national security matter. “These three investments support the foundations of workforce readiness for our aviators, cybersecurity, cryptography, secure communications and data,” he said.
The timing aligns with broader labor shortages in aviation maintenance, where airlines and repair stations have struggled to find enough certified mechanics since the pandemic. The industry has warned that retirements and a drop in training during COVID created a backlog of unfilled positions.
Palm Beach State’s quantum computing program will also support military installations in the region that rely on secure communications and data encryption.
At Melbourne Orlando, the expansion can’t come soon enough, airport officials said. The facility is a hub for Northrop Grumman and serves as a spaceport for commercial launches, but the maintenance apron was built for a different era. It now regularly reaches capacity.
The three awards are among the final batch of Job Growth Grant Fund allocations this fiscal year.
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