"The influx was in the '60s, and they are almost all gone," said Tere Pi Johnson, chief chemist and manager of quality control at the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida in Belle Glade.

Since then, Florida has become the nation's largest producer of sugar cane, with the majority of the crop grown in Palm Beach County.

At old Sugar Tech U

Here is a look at the proposed curriculum for the Sugar Technology Institute planned for Palm Beach Community College's campus in Belle Glade.

Courses: Algebra, chemistry, clarification, crystallization, energy production, engineering, evaporation, factory automation, factory control, factory machinery, filtration, material balance, milling and extraction, physics, steam balance, storage.

Instructors: Specialty sugar courses taught by sugar industry professionals

Schedule: Five semesters of courses in lecture rooms and labs - two semesters before each of two milling seasons (April-October) and one semester after the second milling season (April-June). Two 5-month milling seasons spent in all departments of a sugar mill (November-March).

Source: Tere Pi Johnson, Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida

And cane production has changed during that time, too: It's now much more high-tech, and there is a scarcity of workers to hold the jobs it demands.

"There is no program anywhere in the country where you can be trained to be a sugar technologist," said Johnson, who has worked in the sugar industry in Louisiana and Florida for more than 20 years .

Now she is heading an effort to change that, with the creation of the Sugar Technology Institute at Palm Beach Community College's Belle Glade campus.

Johnson first had the idea for the institute more than a decade ago and is pleased to see it finally happening. Classes could start this fall.

The program would span 27 months and include classes in algebra, chemistry, physics, milling and extraction, filtration, clarification, crystallization and more, Johnson said.

Students would also spend two five-month milling seasons at one of the state's four sugar mills and two refineries.

"I envision starting with nine to 12 students in the program," Johnson said. "When it gets stronger, we may even get people from South and Central America."

School officials are happy about the new institute.

"The proposed education training center at Belle Glade is perhaps the greatest missing element needed to position Palm Beach Community College to provide the education and training necessary to improve economic development in the Glades," PBCC President Dennis Gallon said. "It can be the crown jewel."

Beverly Robinson, provost at Glades campus, said the program has the potential to offer students a direct route to high-paying jobs in the Glades.

Florida's three sugar companies have openings for mechanics, welders, administrators and other jobs specific to their industry.

"When we take people on tours, they expect to see some guy walk out in overalls holding a pitchfork," said Gaston Cantens, spokesman for West Palm Beach-based Florida Crystals Corp. "There is a misperception the sugar industry is trying to keep people down in low-paying jobs. It's the opposite. The jobs are high-tech."

U.S. Sugar Corp. in Clewiston has more than 100 openings for hard-to-find technical and mechanical workers such as electrical instrumentation technicians who oversee the operations via computer screens and troubleshoot when problems arise in the mill or refinery.

The going rate for those jobs is $35 an hour, spokeswoman Judy Sanchez said.

"With all the new construction and new technology across the state and country, it has driven the wages up of those skilled positions," Sanchez said. "The industry is changing. You need to have more skills and knowledge today than you used to."

Sugar industry workers who have heard about the program, such as Marcos Guapo, 21, a lab assistant at the cooperative, have said they want to attend.

"I would like to know more about the sugar industry," Guapo said. "I would have a chance to advance to a higher-paying job."

Jose Alvarez, senior vice president for planning operations at the cooperative, said there is a critical need for the community college program.

Alvarez, 58, left Cuba at age 14. His grandfather was a chief engineer of a Cuban sugar mill and his father, with a degree in mechanical engineering from Louisiana State, became a chief engineer at several sugar mills in Cuba. Family legacies in the sugar industry were once common, but Alvarez said that's no longer true.

"There were several people who were with me at LSU who came from backgrounds in Cuba in the sugar business and got into it," he said. "With my generation, no one thinks about it."