Officials from BP America recently donated $200,000 to the Houston Community College (HCC) Transportation Center of Excellence for its electric vehicle (EV) training program.
The center will apply the funds towards an eight-hour safety and fundamentals course covering repairing and maintaining EVs for more than 300 City of Houston and Harris County fleet department employees. The EV training program began on April 1 and has already trained more than 100 city and county fleet mechanics and automotive repair technicians.
Kentucky
The National Science Foundation has awarded the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) and partners a $1 million grant to advance additive manufacturing practices — also known as 3D printing – throughout Kentucky and surrounding regions.
The grant’s goal is to streamline and advance these technologies while positioning Kentucky as an economic hub for additive manufacturing. KCTCS’s role will focus on workforce development activities and more efficient bridging between the education infrastructure and the demands of the workforce.
“As the largest provider of skilled talent in the commonwealth, KCTCS is honored to accelerate our work in additive manufacturing technologies,” said KCTCS President Ryan Quarles.
KCTCS and the University of Louisville are the grant’s two funded partners, while the Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation is the lead partner for the award.
New Jersey
Hudson County Community College (HCCC) will use a $600,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for a program to recruit and retain more women in the college’s cybersecurity program.
Women comprise 19% of HCCC cybersecurity students. To increase this, HCCC will partner and promote cybersecurity careers in area high schools and create research-oriented cybersecurity workshops for high school females. The college also will establish a dedicated mentorship program for aspiring female cybersecurity majors.
The college will use another portion of the NSF funding to strengthen the cybersecurity program with expanded experiential learning and additional certifications. That includes investing in a new cybersecurity lab with 24 workstations and hardware and software. HCCC will hire two lab technicians, create three new certifications and fully launch the recently initiated student-led Cybersecurity Club.
North Carolina
Forsyth Technical Community College has received an $18,000 grant from the State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) Foundation as part of the 2023-24 SECU Bridge to Career Program. The contribution is to support workforce continuing education students and enhance their educational and career opportunities.
The SECU Foundation’s grant has facilitated the awarding of 30 scholarships, each worth $500, to students enrolled in Forsyth Tech’s workforce continuing education programs. In addition to the scholarships, $3,000 of the grant was used to purchase and distribute books focusing on careers, financial literacy and employability skills.
Pennsylvania
For the third year in a row, Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) has received a grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation (DGLF).
The $8,000 grant will allow LCCC to continue providing adult literacy programming at the Donley Center in downtown Allentown. Specifically, funds will provide English language learners with additional online resources to develop their reading, speaking and digital literacy skills, all of which are critical to obtaining employment.
LCCC’s adult literacy program helps non-native speakers develop essential language skills so they can succeed in the community and workplace.
Virginia
Two recent donations to Mountain Gateway Community College (MGCC) will help the college expand workforce training offerings: A $900,000 donation from the Ratcliffe Foundation and a $30,000 donation from the Bank of Botetourt.
The donations specifically support the development and growth of the Wilson Workforce Center in Buena Vista. The center will expand MGCC’s offerings for electrical, welding, building trades, diesel mechanics, machining and more. The facility is anticipated to be finished by February 2025.
Wisconsin
Lakeshore Technical College is receiving more than $1.2 million to add an accredited dental hygiene associate degree program. The funds are part of the $20 million unanimously approved by the state’s Joint Finance Committee for Wisconsin’s technical colleges to expand the state’s oral healthcare workforce.
“With average starting wages for dental hygienists sitting around $39 per hour in our area, these are in-demand jobs offering family-sustaining wages,” said Lakeshore President Paul Carlsen.
The college is adding the dental hygiene program in response to requests from local dentists who, like others across the state and country, are facing difficulties filling open positions.
Funding will allow Lakeshore to double the capacity it originally anticipated when it announced it was pursuing a dental hygiene program in December. Lakeshore will remodel existing space and its on-site dental clinic, and purchase equipment to accommodate 10 students in each of its dental programs.
