DOL awards $40M for workforce development

January 19, 2021

Matthew Dembicki

January 19, 2021

The U.S. Department of Labor will award a total of $40 million to 10 institutions, including nine community colleges, to build their capacity to meet demands for a skilled workforce.

“As the nation recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, community colleges are critical partners for the public workforce system to train the American workforce and build a pipeline of workers in critical industries such as health care, logistics and cybersecurity,” DOL said in a press release announcing the awards. “The Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants (SCCTG) aim to address the skill development needs of employers and to support workers in gaining skills and transitioning quickly from unemployment to employment.”

The grants also build the capacity of community colleges to address challenges associated with the pandemic, such as expanding online and technology-enabled learning.

The SCCTG program is intended to be a successor to previous similar programs, such as the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grants and the Community-Based Job Training Grants. It aims to address the skill development needs of employers and to support workers in gaining skills and transitioning quickly from unemployment to employment, according to DOL.

Grant recipients are individual community colleges or a consortium of community colleges undertaking capacity building and systems change at the institutional or state level. Selected institutions will work with workforce development systems and employers to train a broad spectrum of workers, including dislocated workers, incumbent workers and new entrants to the workforce, according to DOL.

The grant recipients are: