Briefing: College Training Grant
The state’s 15 community colleges recently received $20 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to provide job training to workers who have been laid off.
Where does the money come from?
It’s part of $500 million in grants to community colleges across the U.S. The money comes from a $2 billion pool of federal money intended to support training and employment opportunities for the unemployed. Worcester’s Quinsigamond Community College applied for the funding on behalf of the state’s community colleges.
How will the money be used?
It will pay for training for recently laid-off workers in fields including life sciences, IT, health care, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, financial services and entrepreneurship. In particular, The Boston Globe reports, some of the state’s community colleges plan to use the money to offer training online, and others intend to work with employers to write new curricula that would place basic skills in the context of the ways they can be used in particular fields.
Why do the training through community colleges?
The Obama Administration says it targeted community colleges for several reasons. It said the grants support partnerships between community colleges and employers to develop programs that prepare students for work, while encouraging the colleges to use student outcome data in evaluating job-training strategies. The administration said the grant also complements President Obama’s goal of having all Americans complete at least one year of post-secondary education.
Who else got grant money?
There were 32 awardees altogether, with no more than one grant per state. The largest awards were $24.7 million for Hawaii and $24.1 million for Virginia. A majority of the awardees got between $10 and $20 million, but some smaller states received as little as $2.5 million.
How big a deal is this for Massachusetts’ community colleges?
The Globe quotes an official at the state Community Colleges Executive Office as saying this may be the largest-ever grant for the colleges from an external source. According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, funding for community colleges in the fiscal 2012 state budget totals $210.4 million, a $17.1 million reduction from last year, so the grant represents a bit more than that cut.
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