The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Strengthening Community College Training (SCCT) Grants Program is the only dedicated source of funding for community colleges in the nation’s primary workforce development law, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).
Recipients say the grants have funded many student workforce initiatives that would not otherwise have been funded. With WIOA up for reauthorization in a Capitol Hill environment where federal grant programs and agencies are being rapidly eliminated, this story examines what some community college recipients have done with their SCCT grants to date — and what could be lost if the funding disappears.
Supporting IT training
To date, DOL has issued five rounds of four-year-long SCCT grants. Across all five rounds, 207 colleges, including leads and consortia members, are addressing major workforce priorities for employers and workers in 35 states and local communities, according to DOL statistics.
County College of Morris in New Jersey is using SCCT funding to position itself as a leading institution for educating professionals for information technology careers. Awarded a $1.6 million SCCT grant in the third year of grants for the 2023-27 period, the college is using the funds to address the needs of lower-income students while focusing on the employment needs of the IT industry, especially in the field of cybersecurity, says Anthony Iacono, president of CCM.
“CCM is creating an entirely new system where students can come in, learn about careers and begin their coursework that leads to industry credentials right away,” Iacono says. “Students are then immediately employable, and we are able to take those clock hours and industry credentials and articulate those to college credits. A student can either take those credentials and go right to work or can stay with us to further their education, and go to work at higher wages, which is typically what we promote. It puts them on a pathway toward an associate degree, which gives them higher wages, and a pathway of lifelong learning, which is important for a career like IT, where, given how fast the IT world changes, you always have to be learning to be successful.”
The program is for adult students at CCM, including post-high school and older adult learners. The college is actively recruiting employers to participate in registered apprenticeship programs.
Such programs deliver large economic benefits, Iacono says.
“A recent Lightcast economic impact study showed CCM has a $586.1 million economic impact on our county, which is the equivalent to supporting 5,977 jobs,” Iacono says.
A total of 30 students have completed the program, and an additional 12 students are currently enrolled, with plans to increase the cohort size to 50 students in the final year of the grant, Iacono says.
Targeting manufacturing
Tulsa Community College (TCC), also a SCCT Round 3 grantee that has received $1.6 million, has used its grant to increase underserved student participation in manufacturing and engineering technology by expanding paid, work-based learning experiences for nine participating Tulsa County public high schools, says Melissa Steadley, director of dual-credit programs at TCC.
The program, which allows its student participants to earn an associate of applied science degree in engineering technology and manufacturing technology, is an entirely new one that would not have been possible but for the SCCT grant, Steadley says.
In the past, dual-credit programs have focused on degrees facilitating transfers to state universities, culminating in bachelor’s degrees.
“With this grant, we’re instead focusing on dual-credit programs for development of the workforce,” Steadley says.
“Our manufacturing companies in the northeast of the state are growing in size and number, and they desire to see a consistent pipeline of talent with the right skills to be valuable employees,” says Pete Selden, TCC vice president of workforce development. “However, for employers such as local manufacturers, who will hire individuals with a minimum high school diploma, a college certificate or an associate degree, there has been no early college or dual-enrollment pathway for them. Thus, TCC created this new pathway so that students in high school can get an early start to a rewarding career and employers can feel confident hiring them directly after high school graduation or when they have finished their certificate or degree at TCC.”
The first cohort of four students — all first-generation college students — started in summer 2024, two more joined in January, and 22 additional students will start in summer 2025, Steadley says. The first cohort will receive associate degrees in 2026. All the costs of participants, which for an adult program could amount to $9,000, are covered by the grants, Steadley says.
Serving underserved communities
Bismarck State College (BSC) in North Dakota, recipient of a $1.6 million grant for the second cohort for the 2022-26 period, has used funds to support healthcare and manufacturing programs ranging from short-term certificates, to associate of applied science and bachelor of applied science degrees, with a particular focus on targeting underserved communities, says Alicia Uhde, BSC dean of automation, energy and advanced technology, who oversees the grant.
Some of the grant funds are used to increase awareness of high-paying, in-demand careers among underserved populations and to establish new career pathway opportunities for underserved populations, Uhde says. A pre-certified nursing assistant course was established to help English language learners pass their boards.
Because of the grant work, BSC has also been approved to provide online access to college courses through the federal Second Chance Pell program, which provides Pell grants to incarcerated individuals in state and federal prisons to pursue postsecondary education. Additionally, the college is using the grant to establish apprenticeships that allow students to get paid and earn credits toward a degree or certificate while they work in their industry. Apprenticeship programs are being created in both healthcare and manufacturing, and for incarcerated individuals.
“Apprenticeship opportunities that provide individuals with industry skills prior to release would have been a difficult feat without the grant,” Uhde says.
Ramping up rural healthcare
Four Wisconsin community colleges — including Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC), Mid-State Technical College and Northwood Technical College, which are members of the American Association of Community Colleges — together received a $4.9 million grant as part of the third round of SCCT for the 2023-27 period aimed at healthcare programs.
“Our four colleges serve 34,000 square miles; these are some of the most rural areas in Wisconsin,” says Amanda Norberg, rural outreach coordinator for allied health administration at CVTC, which administers the grant for the four institutions. “Our goal is to provide more education and training and resources for people in those rural areas to support the desperate need that we have for employment in our rural healthcare areas.”
At CVTC, training related to the grant focuses on serving a high school-age group through academy resources, where students take college classes in high school that either earn them a credential or serve as prerequisites for the college’s healthcare programs, Norberg says.
“Upon completion of a pre-nursing healthcare academy, they can then direct enroll into our nursing program, which is a two-year associate degree program. We also have practical nursing and then a variety of other allied health programs that this qualifies for as well,” she says.
