A national workforce development program supported by the rock band Metallica is rolling into its seventh year with a new cohort of community colleges and its largest grant to date of about $3 million.
Metallica’s philanthropic organization All Within My Hands (AWMH) on Monday announced that 15 community colleges this fall are joining the Metallica Scholars Initiative (MSI). Each new school will receive $75,000 to enhance the student experience within career and technical education programs.
The newly added colleges are:
• Allan Hancock College (California)
• Atlantic Cape Community College (New Jersey)
• Chattahoochee Valley Community College (Alabama)
• College of Southern Idaho
• Community College of Beaver County (Pennsylvania)
• De Anza College (California)
• Eastern New Mexico University–Ruidoso
• Ivy Tech Community College Columbus (Indiana)
• Laramie County Community College (Wyoming)
• Leeward Community College (Hawaii)
• Mott Community College (Michigan)
• Northeast Community College (Nebraska)
• Northland Pioneer College (Arizona)
• Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College (South Carolina)
• Salish Kootenai College (Montana)
MSI is now involved with 75 colleges in all 50 states and Guam, and is expected to reach approximately 10,000 students, according to a release. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is a partner on the initiative.
MSI started in 2019 with 10 colleges focused primarily on manufacturing programs. It has since expanded to offer opportunities in other growing fields that offer family-sustaining careers. New areas added this coming fall include air traffic control, agricultural technologies, fire technologies and AI, in addition to established programs, such as construction, welding, commercial driving licensing and advanced manufacturing.
To date, AWMH has invested more than $13.5 million in the initiative.
Program evaluation
The University of Southern California (USC) Sol Price School of Public Policy has evaluated MSI’s effect on the skilled trades and its return on investment (ROI) earlier this year. It included all the colleges in the program through year six and measured the cost of completion and anticipated salaries post-graduation.
The report noted that ROI is high across all MSI-supported programs is a very high and cost-efficient at more than eight times–meaning that on average, MSI graduates can expect to earn more than eight times the upfront cost of their program during their first year in the workforce, according to AWMH.
“If we extrapolate these ROI numbers over a career, it demonstrates how effective and profitable learning a trade can be for the individual, and how society as a whole also benefits from community college graduates,” AWMH Executive Director Peter Delgrosso said in the release. “This insight will profoundly affect MSI going forward, impacting how people view careers in the trades, encouraging more corporate and individual sponsorship and driving its advancement across the country.”
AWMH also noted its partnership renewal with the Lowe’s Foundation, which has provided $1 million in support as part of its five-year, $50 million commitment to prepare 50,000 people for skilled trades careers.
