Ground was broken today on the new North Dakota State College of Science Career Innovation Center, to be built in south Fargo.
The Center will work with high school and college aged students to connect them with career and technical education and training. Funding for the Center is being raised privately, and appropriated by the 2021 Legislature, and is a partnership between NDSCS and private sector companies, K-12 school districts in Cass and Clay Counties, and other two year institutions.
Brent Sandford is Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota. He says the Center could be “the most transformative thing” to come from the legislative session. He says it provides the guidance students need at that point in their lives.
"It's an amazing thing to think of, about how we can finally bridge these job factories in the state. But we have a low population, and everyone's always struggling to find those qualified employees. What I tell those employers when they come to me and the governor and say, 'let's bring more families into the state,' I tell them; you as employers need to engage back into where the kids are that live here now, because I can tell you - I have a ten-year-old, a 13-year old and a 20-year-old. And I was there myself. You don't know the opportunities there for yourself; even in your own communities."
The Center will be open in the fall of 2022.