Experts: Starr County has the workforce talent to attract ‘big industrial companies’

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas – An absorbing discussion about the quality of the workforce in Starr County occurred during the Rio Grande Valley Partnership’s latest Commercial & Investment Tour.

The event, which started at the Rio Grande City Public Safety Building, was co-hosted by Rio Grande City Economic Development Corporation and Starr County Industrial Foundation. 

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In addition to a bus tour of Rio Grande City, attendees heard about the opportunities for industrial, commercial, and retail development in Starr County. The panel discussing these opportunities consisted of Roma Mayor Jaime Escobar, Rio Grande City City Manager Gilbert Millan, Daniel Garza, head of development services for the City of Roma, and Antonio Cantu, planning director for Rio Grande City, and David Alcocer, owner and operator of the Chick-Fil-A franchise in Rio Grande City.

The panel was moderated by Sara M. Hernandez, interim executive director of Rio Grande City EDC.

During the Q&A portion of the discussion, Robert Kirby, of Kirby Real Estate, asked if Rio Grande City had “a talented and qualified workforce” should a “big industrial company” come into the city. This led to a wide-ranging conversation that included remarks from SCIF President Rose Benavidez, RGVP President Daniel Silva, Mayor Escobar, Garza, and Alcocer.

“I think that the challenge that we’ve seen filling spots, and there’s this whole conversation about soft skills, and do we have the potential to get a pool of employees… and I’ll tell you that that’s something that we haven’t struggled with in Starr County,” Benavidez said, in response to Kirby’s question.

Benavidez said SCIF is fortunate to have a very close relationship with South Texas College and Workforce Solutions. 

“And the interesting thing is that we have found a way for our community to embed itself in Workforce Solutions operations to a degree that we don’t struggle. We’ve been able to pre-fit some of the employees that someone may need.”

Benavidez then gave an example.

“I-HOP, right south of us, across the street, just opened their doors on Monday. They hired 80 people within 48 hours.”

Benavidez admitted SCIF was “a little shocked” at the very fast response of would-be employees.

“They (I-HOP) said this is typically what we have. We have 120 people on call right now, in the event that attrition happens very rapidly. They didn’t expect it to, but that’s how quickly they found what they felt were very strong candidates to go through their training program. “

Benavidez said SCIF had a similar experience with energy projects coming into the county.

“When we’re working with some of the energy companies that do construction for their projects, we had multiple job fairs for them, which we do before they even hit the ground, so that when they come, the pool of applicants that they see have already been pre-vetted. It’s something that we offer to a lot of the businesses, regardless of the type of industry,” Benavidez said.

“We had 2,300 people apply for 500 jobs and the company couldn’t believe the amount of people that (applied). Because if you look at our demographics, this isn’t necessarily a very densely populated location.”

Benavidez said Starr County benefits from a workforce that commutes, both from Hidalgo County and around the state. She said many local residents go to other parts of the country to work in a different variety of fields.

“But if they find gainful employment and meaningful employment in this community, they stay here. We train them at the college. They don’t have to drive anywhere anymore, maybe (just) a short distance to get trained. And then what they’re looking for is to have jobs that that keep them close to home.”

Benavidez acknowledged there is still work to do. 

“Are we there yet? Absolutely not. Is there a lot of work to do? We recognize that primarily as the motivating force to get us to try and recruit new industry at a level where those jobs are going to allow people that are getting trained to stay in that work,” Benavidez said.

“And so, we have not struggled with job placement and with identifying good candidates for industry. What we’re hopeful to do now is take those candidates and find the jobs that they can match to.”

In his remarks, Silva, the RGVP president, said the Valley’s universities and community colleges are “light years ahead of where they were ten years ago” when measuring how they modularize their training processes.

“I think as we start to see the industrial park get developed in Roma, we’re going to start to see more specialized training. The market is going to dictate what the training is, but they (higher education institutions) can pivot very quickly and start to provide that training service,” Silva said.

Silva said there are people that live in Rio Grande City that commute to the Port of Brownsville to work at the liquefied natural gas export terminal projects. “The salaries that they’re producing over there, they (the commuters) are going to bring that money back home and we’re going to see communities develop. I thin the economic wheel is going to continue to turn.”

Chick-Fil-A’s Alcocer said Valley natives that have left to work in places like Dallas and San Antonio would return if there were good paying jobs in the Valley.”

Mayor Escobar said his city’s new industrial park will help. “We have people that are very capable and can do high-level jobs, but they have to work outside of the Rio Grande Valley. So now with these developments they will be able to work here.”

Garza, the head of development services for the City of Roma, praised South Texas College. 

“We’ve decided to spearhead a collaboration with South Texas College Technology Campus in McAllen, through Mr. Carlos Martinez. He’s one of their program coordinators. We’ve had these discussions as to, how can we keep the workforce in Roma, instead of our individuals leaving as soon as they graduate high school, or them not being able to find opportunities at the adult stage in Roma,” Garza said.

“And what does that collaboration look like? They (STC) are offering us (training) courses in Roma instead of having to travel over to McAllen. These are courses in electrical wiring, mechanical systems, welding, surveying. So that our workforce in the high school stages and shortly after graduation are prepared for that skilled labor and those jobs that will be retained through the development of the industrial park and through all the construction projects.”

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