- Initiative aims to expand childcare for student parents
- Maryland partnership opens millwright apprenticeship
- North Carolina college to expand nursing program
Initiative aims to expand childcare for student parents
A new national initiative aims to bring more Head Start programs to community college campuses.
The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and the National Head Start Association (NHSA) today announced the launch of the Kids on Campus, which will provide technical assistance to Head Start and Early Head Start programs and community colleges.
The associations will identify interested organizations, introduce those prepared to partner, and provide technical assistance all the way through introductions to negotiations and through the first few months of their partnership after the doors have opened, according to a release.
Insufficient childcare and early learning opportunities are significant barriers for the 1.7 million parents — mainly moms — in college, ACCT officials said, noting that few community colleges currently offer on-campus childcare and many centers that did exist permanently closed during the pandemic.
ECMC Foundation, Imaginable Futures, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Trellis Foundation, Crimsonbridge Foundation and Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation are providing funding for the five-year project.
Maryland partnership opens millwright apprenticeship
Maryland’s Carroll Community College is partnering with Heidelberg Materials North America on a new millwright apprenticeship program.
The program is for four years, with 780 hours of classroom instruction and 8,000 hours of on-the-job training, according to a release. Students will learn various skills, including welding, plumbing, pipefitting, conveyor belt functions and sheet metal work.
Myriad factories, foundries, mills, breweries and manufacturing facilities across various industries rely on millwrights to maintain motors, turbines, renewable energy and equipment — including Heidelberg Materials. The new apprenticeship will allow employees to learn-and-earn on the job.
“This program helps us ensure we have the right skills to make the plant run at the highest performance level to provide the construction materials for the world to thrive,” said Paul Rogers, plant manager at the Heidelberg Materials cement plant in Union Bridge.
North Carolina college to expand nursing program
Central Piedmont Community College is the latest among a growing number of public two-year colleges across the country that are expanding their nursing programs to meet a growing need in their communities.
Central Piedmont will boost its nursing programs to accommodate more students and help meet the need for more registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) in its service area. The college will grow its associate degree in nursing program from 200 to 300 students beginning in May. And it will more than double the size of its practical nursing program from 24 to 64 students.
Central Piedmont will offer two new options for students – an accelerated associate degree in nursing track and an LPN-to-associate-degree in nursing bridge program. The accelerated associate degree in nursing program will give motivated students who can attend school full-time (up to 37 hours per week) the opportunity to complete their studies in 14 to 15 months, according to the college. The LPN-to-ADN bridge option is designed to give LPNs a path to earn their associate degree in nursing and become registered nurses.
