SWGTC awarded $2.3 Million in Federal Grant Funds

Funds will go towards job training in multiple health related programs

Thomasville, GA – September 29, 2014 – Southwest Georgia Technical College (SWGTC) will receive a portion of a $450 million federal community college grant to expand job training through local employer partnerships. These grants are the third installment of a $2 billion, 4-year initiative. The total amount awarded to SWGTC is $2.3 million.

Today, as part of this effort, Vice President Biden, Secretary Thomas E. Perez, and Secretary Arne Duncan announced the winners of $450 million in job-driven training grants going to nearly 270 community colleges across the country. The funding is part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) competitive grant program, which is co-administered by the Department of Labor and Department of Education. The purpose of the grant is to provide community colleges and other eligible institutions of higher education with funds to partner with employers to expand and improve their ability to deliver education and career training programs that will help job seekers get the skills they need for in-demand jobs in industries like information technology, health care, energy, and advanced manufacturing.

SWGTC will be expanding its Healthcare Careers Work! program through the awarded grant. HCW is an employer-driven, technology-infused sector strategy project that will link 525 TAA-eligible, unemployed and dislocated workers and veterans with quickly earned certificates and degrees in high-demand, high wage health care careers. Opportunities for stacking and latticed credentials will be offered in order to meet employer and student needs. The funding will help SWGTC meet the on-going regional demand for qualified healthcare professionals within nursing, health sciences, health information technology and medical billing/coding.

“We are honored to be the only individual college recipient of this grant in the state of Georgia.  SWGTC staff worked tirelessly to develop a program worthy of recognition and the award of $2.3 million to train and place into employment those unemployed and underemployed in our region.  We are very excited to be a part of this initiative,” said Dr. Craig Wentworth, SWGTC President.

The initiative complements President Obama’s broader goals to help ensure that every American has at least one year of postsecondary education and the U.S. has the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. Through this initiative, each state plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico will receive at least $2.5 million in dedicated funding for community college career training programs.

Today’s 71 grantees build on nearly $1.5 billion in TAACCCT grant funds that have gone over the past three years to strengthen and expand job-driven training partnerships in communities across the country.

“Community colleges play a vital role in equipping our nation’s students with the skills they need to meet the demands of today’s careers,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “This program is not about tinkering — it’s about transformation. This is not about getting more students to enroll — it’s about getting more students to graduation day and into good jobs.”

These grants emphasize evidence-based program design. Each grantee is required to collect rigorous student outcome data annually and conduct final evaluations at the end of the grant period to build knowledge about which strategies are most effective in placing graduates in jobs.

Learn more about the grant program at http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ETA20141865.htm.
There you will find a list of grantees by state, including project descriptions.

SWGTC offers more than 80 certificate, diploma, and degree programs. Many of these programs provide training for some of the nation’s fastest-growing career fields including Nursing, Automotive Technology, Clinical Laboratory Technology, and Emergency Medical Technology. More information may be obtained by calling 229-225-4096 or by logging onto www.southwestgatech.edu.

Spring Semester 2015 begins January 6^th! Don’t wait, enroll today!

A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia.