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Nebraska Employment Grant

May 24th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

Northeast Community College in Norfolk has recently received a $1,999,999 grant to help train its students to be highly skilled workers in the energy industry. The grant was provided to the school, which has a solid academic reputation and a history of graduated highly skilled workers, by the US Dept. of Labor.

The grant that Northeast Community College received is part of a Nebraska employment grant of more than $2 million. The purpose of the grants is to help community colleges effectively train their students to fill vacancies in the healthcare industry.

The President’s Community-based Job Training Grants specifically develop highly trained workers for growth industries, including advanced manufacturing, construction, energy, transportation, biotechnology and healthcare.

Jobs in healthcare are surging. Healthcare is currently the largest industry in the U.S. In fact, projections for 2014 show that about 19% of new jobs created that year will be in the healthcare industry. Eight of the 20 fastest growing jobs are in the healthcare industry.

A few of the other fastest growing industries are advanced manufacturing, energy and biotechnology. But the healthcare is responsible for more jobs than any other market sector. It employs 13.5 million people. Half a million self-employed people work in the healthcare industry.

Training for most healthcare jobs can be done in less than 4 years of community college. “Community colleges are closely tied to the areas they serve,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, Emily Stover DeRocco, “and they have proven themselves adept at responding to the regional workforce demands for numerous industries.

The money for the Nebraska employment grant that Northeast Community College received came from a $125 million initiative introduced by President George W. Bush during his 2004 State of the Union address. The initiative, called the President’s Community-based Job Training Grants, is targeted towards schools that train workers in healthcare, energy and construction. The $125 million will go to 72 colleges in 34 states.

The grants for this nationwide effort to train better workers will go mostly to community colleges. However, a few grants will also go to non-profit agencies and companies that train their workers for higher paying jobs.