Infrastructure & Safety Summit trains over 400 Rio Grande Valley employees
HARLINGEN, TX — Over 400 participants took advantage of low-cost training offered by the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) during the annual Infrastructure & Safety Summit in Harlingen on April 30 – May 4. Employees from municipalities and construction companies attended the weeklong training event, which was hosted on the campus of the Texas State Technical College (TSTC) in Harlingen. This is the second year that TEEX’s Infrastructure Training and Safety Institute has collaborated with TSTC’s Workforce Training and Continuing Education Department to offer infrastructure and safety training courses to employees in the Rio Grande Valley. This year, 21 courses were offered, with free or deeply discounted registration fees, thanks to General Revenue funding from the state of Texas, with the goal of reaching employees who might not otherwise have access to the training.
Along with water and wastewater continuing education courses, participants took heavy equipment operator training, hazardous materials instructor, workzone traffic control and flagging courses. Several OSHA courses were offered, which can be applied toward earning the TEEX Certified Safety & Health Official ? (CSHO) designation. A DHS-FEMA-funded course in “Disaster Preparedness for Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations within the Community Infrastructure” was also offered to healthcare personnel at no cost through TEEX’s National Emergency Response and Recovery Training Center.
“We hope this week of training and continuing education contributes to the success of professionals in the field of infrastructure and safety by giving them new skills and greater confidence,” said ITSI Division Director Ron Peddy. “Safety is our No. 1 priority, and we believe effective training will not only enhance an employee’s career, but will ultimately improve our communities and make them safer for all of us.”