In what is believed to be one of the largest federal investments in community colleges ever, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Education Department announced a long-awaited $2 billion competitive grant program Thursday meant to support programs that help students and “trade impacted” workers secure jobs in new and growing industries.
Titled the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program, the four-year, $2 billion initiative was authorized through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009’s amendments to the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act. Funding comes through the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, which is the Obama health care reform legislation that was signed into law last March.
The grant competition—part of the Obama administration’s larger goal of having America’s workforce hold the largest proportion of college degrees in the world by 2020—is open to community colleges but can involve partnerships with other institutions as well as the private sector. The grants are meant to enable institutions to “expand their capacity to create new education or training programs—or improve existing ones—to meet the needs of local regional businesses,” according to the Department of Labor.
“It means new opportunities for American workers to get in school to trained for in-demand jobs,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said Thursday in a telephone conference, referring to jobs that ranged from those in the fields of allied health to renewable energy.
She said it will be up to the prospective community college grantees and their partners to determine precisely what professions will have the highest demand in the coming years.
“These institutions, in partnership with local employers and other entities, will create curriculums and programs leading to industry recognized credentials and associate degrees,” Solis said.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the grant program will place a crucial focus on partnerships with business in order to achieve what Duncan often describes in his public speeches as the need to “educate our way to a better economy.”
