CF celebrates workforce expansion in 2024-2025 academic year

The AdventHealth Center for Nursing is shown at the College of Central Florida on Jan. 30, 2025. The new, $20 million, two-story, 42,500 square foot building has six classrooms, six exam simulation rooms, three skills labs and a testing lab. The state-of-the art simulation labs give students practice on current medical equipment and procedures. [File photo by Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette]

The College of Central Florida has announced a record number of workforce expansion initiatives in the 2024-2025 academic year, as part of the largest workforce education expansion in the college’s 68-year history.

“The College of Central Florida is achieving unprecedented growth and receiving national recognition for our quality, with the help of our amazing partners,” said Jim Henningsen, CF president, in the news release.

Henningsen noted that CF has invested more than $100 million in state and local support over the past few years to expand academic programs and facilities and prepare the graduates to meet the needs of employers.

CF’s workforce education accomplishments in the 2024-2025 academic year, the release noted, include:

• Launching new programs, degrees and certificates:
  • In response to growing demand for skilled professionals in Florida’s leading industry, CF added a new Hospitality and Tourism Management program to begin in Fall 2025, which will meet the local labor market needs of the expanding hospitality industry.
  • The college submitted a proposal to the State Board of Education for a new Associate in Science degree in Precision Agriculture Technology, which will be the first of its kind in Florida, preparing students for careers in the dynamic and increasingly technology-driven agricultural sector.
  • CF launched a new Associate in Science degree in Fire Science in the Spring 2025 semester, designed to help individuals advance in their careers and meet the expanding need for public safety leaders in the region.
  • To meet a major increase in the need for technicians with Geographic Information Systems training, CF worked with the city of Ocala, Marion County and regional employers to create a new college credit certificate in GIS. Graduates will be in demand for jobs in information technology, emergency response, urban planning, agriculture, environmental science, education, site development and more.
  • To prepare graduates to fill around 300 local job openings in high-demand health care fields, CF launched programs in cardiovascular technology, diagnostic medical sonography technology and respiratory care.
• Creating and strengthening community partnerships:
  • CF formalized a new partnership with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to enhance student education and advance the use of uncrewed aircraft systems in agriculture.
  • CF partnered with CareerSource Citrus Levy Marion and public school districts in Marion, Citrus and Levy counties to offer the Pathways to Permanent program for teachers on temporary certifications. Since the program started in 2023, CF has enrolled and supported 71 classroom teachers on their journey to licensure and more than 100 teachers have applied to the program for the Fall 2025 semester.
  • Through its public-private partnership with Fleetforce Truck Driving School, CF has produced 263 Commercial Driver’s License graduates and has just expanded into Levy County, in partnership with the Levy County School Board and CareerSource CLM, with the first cohort of Class B CDL students set to graduate in June 2025
  • CF, in partnership with BDI Datalynk and CareerSource CLM, has trained 109 individuals with the support of the Creating Connections Broadband Infrastructure Grant, with a 99% pass rate. CF worked to have the Certified Fiber Optics Bootcamp certifications, including Certified Fiber Optics Technician, Certified Fiber Optic Specialist – Testing & Maintenance and Certified Fiber Optic Specialist – Splicing added to the Master Credential List.
  • Lockheed Martin has launched a new schedule of seven apprentice cohorts, which will train at the CF Ocala Campus advanced manufacturing lab. After the first four weeks of training, apprentices will be eligible for nine college credit hours in the CF Associate in Science in Engineering Technology degree program.
  • CF Corporate College partnered with the Levy County School Board to offer the first of its kind phlebotomy training for high school seniors.
• Expanding facilities, supporting students and maintaining excellence:
  • Through the Reimagining Education and Career Help (REACH) Act, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021, CF received four grants this year:
    • $1,967,027 in scholarship funding from the FLDOE Open Door Grant Program to support students in career and technical education programs;
    • $1,049,273 from the Florida Department of Education PIPELINE District Fund for nursing education;
    • $661,959 from the Workforce Development Capitalization Incentive grant to renovate and modernize technology at the Vintage Farm Campus and expand IT programs to the Wilton Simpson Citrus Campus and
    • $600,000 from the FLDOE Linking Industry to Nursing Education fund for nursing education and scholarships.
  • CF was certified as a National Institute of Food and Agriculture Non-Land-Grant College of Agriculture, one of only three Florida educational institutions and the only college in the Florida College System with this designation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  • The college is renovating the Ocala Campus Building 19 to serve as a new home for its Emergency Medical Services programs, as part of an ongoing Health Sciences expansion that also included the opening of the new AdventHealth Center for Nursing in January 2025 and the opening of the Allied Health Sciences building in 2023.
  • Health Sciences have expanded at the Wilton Simpson Citrus Campus with the addition of the Respiratory Care program and the Citrus County Hospital Board Nursing Promise Scholarship, which covers tuition for Citrus County residents in the Associate Degree Nursing program.
  • CF is preparing to break ground on a new Criminal Justice Instruction Center, a 33,744-square-foot modern, multimedia learning environment where students will prepare to fill a number of open law enforcement jobs in the area.

To learn more, visit cf.edu