CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx. — Del Mar College unveiled Wednesday a $1.7 million investment into emergency response training.
That investment includes training props and equipment that will help ensure not only students enrolled at the college be prepared for a variety of emergencies, but also benefit companies and emergency responders across the Coastal Bend.
Davis Merrell, the college's Dean of Industry and Public Service, said that industry partners requested the college make this investment but that it would be utilized by many.
"One of the things is a lot of these programs have mandatory training hours that they have to do either annually or every two years," Merrell said. "And so we help with police, fire, EMS, paramedic, just to name a few. And so not only do they come here to get that license in order to get into the field, then they have to come back to continue with that license."
Ultimately, the investment is about providing resources to help the Coastal Bend promote safety, said Dan Korus, the college's Dean of Workforce Programs and Corporate Services.
He said, over the last two years the college has provided safety and rescue training to nearly 2,000 industry employees over the course of 21,000 hours.
With the new equipment, he said the college will double that number in the next three to five years.
"We want to be safe in our community, safe in our industry and Del Mar is leading the way in safety initiatives," Korus said.
