ST. LOUIS — The state of Missouri is providing $5 million to a St. Louis-based workforce development group to help train youths for jobs in the geospatial technology sector.
The nonprofit group Gateway Global will use $2.5 million of the funds — which are included in the state’s 2022-2023 budget — to increase its staff and pay for training, curriculum, and instruction for its Geospatial Intelligence Technician program, enabling it to serve more young people. The program began in June 2020.
Trainees between the ages of 16 through 18 — the majority of whom will be job seekers in need of transportation and other related resources — will receive stipends of $125 per week during their training, said Zekita Armstrong Asuquo, chair and CEO of Gateway Global.
About 100 young people, including 80 from St. Louis, are expected to receiving training in 2022-2023. The rest will be likely from southeast or southwest Missouri and trained remotely.
Armstrong Asuquo said the skills are designed to satisfy the talent needs of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the information technology companies that support the agency. The federal spy agency is scheduled to move into its new $1.7 billion headquarters in north St. Louis in 2025.
The other $2.5 million will be allocated to the non-profit group’s proposed Geospatial & IT Workforce and Apprenticeship Campus in the Hyde Park neighborhood of north St. Louis.
Plans call for a $25 million, three-building campus where Gateway Global will train and qualify job seekers statewide for jobs related to defense, homeland security, emergency response, disaster relief, utilities management and critical infrastructure support.
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