TSTC bets on advanced manufacturing to meet RGV’s industrial boom

HARLINGEN — As billions of dollars in industrial investment take shape across the Rio Grande Valley, Texas State Technical College is overhauling its program lineup to keep pace with the workforce those projects will demand.

Dr. Gina Cano-Monreal, provost of TSTC’s Harlingen campus, discussed the college’s approach in an interview on the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal podcast with host Naxiely Lopez-Puente. Cano-Monreal, who has spent 18 years at TSTC, said the college was created to respond directly to shifting local labor needs — and that mandate sometimes means retiring programs that no longer serve the region.

“If we’re offering a particular program that’s no longer what our region needs, then sometimes we have to take a step back,” Cano-Monreal said. “It’s had to adapt over the last couple of years from saying, ‘This is what we’re offering,’ to saying, even though it’s going to be hard, maybe these are some programs we need to sunset because we’ve got to be ready for what’s coming next.”

TSTC was established in 1965 as part of the Texas A&M System, first as Texas State Technical Institute before becoming Texas State Technical College. The Harlingen campus is one of the system’s original locations, alongside Waco, Arlington and a West Texas campus, and remains among the largest of TSTC’s 11 statewide campuses.

Cano-Monreal said the Texas Education Code directs TSTC to provide a skilled pipeline of workers matched to local workforce needs, a mandate she summarized as placing more Texans in “great-paying jobs.”

That mandate is driving a significant curriculum shift this fall. TSTC is phasing out its longtime mechatronics program and replacing it with a new advanced manufacturing track, reflecting statewide demand for specialized skills in industrial maintenance and robotics. Students will begin in industrial maintenance before choosing whether to continue into a robotics pathway. The college launched a diesel program last fall and will add electrical construction in Harlingen this fall, a program previously offered only at TSTC’s Waco campus. The college has also moved its dental assisting instruction into an accelerated training format while continuing to offer a standalone dental hygiene program.

Cano-Monreal said the changes are shaped directly by conversations with employers expanding in the region. She pointed to NextDecade and Bechtel, the companies developing the Rio Grande LNG export terminal at the Port of Brownsville, as partners that have worked with TSTC to identify additional training components needed for that project’s workforce.

“Bechtel has been a wonderful partner with TSTC, coming in and saying, look at our curriculum — this is what you’re producing, this is an additional component we really need,” Cano-Monreal said.

Other employer partners include Kiewit, which works closely with graduates of TSTC’s electrical lineworker program; SpaceX, which Cano-Monreal said meets each semester with the college’s aviation maintenance and welding programs to give feedback; and Valeo, an automotive supplier opening a manufacturing plant in the McAllen area. She said Toyota has also been a long-standing partner tied to the advanced manufacturing curriculum.

Beyond individual programs, Cano-Monreal described a broader push to build what TSTC calls “triad partnerships” — coordinated efforts between the college, local school districts and industry employers to expose students to career pathways before they graduate high school. Harlingen, San Benito and Los Fresnos school districts are among those involved. The goal, she said, is to connect students and their families with a clear path from high school coursework through TSTC training and into a specific job opportunity.

“It’s really this intentional partnership of the industry partner, the ISD and the post-secondary partner, bringing those groups together and saying, look at the opportunity,” Cano-Monreal said. “This is your path.”

TSTC’s Electrical Lineworker program hosts a family day for students and industry partners, including Magic Valley Electric Cooperative, giving companies a chance to observe students’ skills directly and offer feedback to program leadership.

Asked whether artificial intelligence threatens the career paths TSTC trains students for, Cano-Monreal said she views the college’s hands-on programs as largely insulated from automation, even as some roles evolve to include more troubleshooting and oversight of automated systems.

“We like to say, if you want to AI-proof your career, come visit us,” she said. “I would say all of our programs are AI-proof in some way or another. … I think we’re going to have to adapt just like every other entity, but I think for the most part, these are AI-proof careers.”

TSTC’s fall semester begins the Tuesday after Labor Day, and Cano-Monreal said registration remains open through that date. Prospective students can find program and enrollment information at TSTC.edu or visit the Harlingen campus, located off the interstate loop near U.S. Highway 99.

The full interview is available on the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal podcast.