The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is accepting proposals for the next cohort of community colleges in the Metallica Scholars Initiative (MSI), a national workforce development program supported by the rock band Metallica.
With funding from All Within My Hands, the band’s foundation, AACC will select up to 15 colleges as part of the program’s eighth cohort. Each college will receive $75,000 to support career and technical education that leads to well-paying jobs.
Applicants, which must be AACC-member institutions, are asked to identify their unique labor market needs and target populations to support their success. Colleges should provide local labor market data to support their application, as well as two methods to track economic outcomes of MSI activities.
The application deadline is April 27. AACC expects to notify applicants of their status by early June.
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The selected colleges will participate in an annual MSI meeting in Wichita, Kansas, in early September. AACC and All Within My Hands will compile best practices to help scale efforts among other community colleges.
MSI is now involved with 75 colleges in all 50 states and Guam and is expected to reach approximately 10,000 students. Program funds go toward purchasing student safety gear, learning materials, scholarships, tuition offset and related activities.
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 last 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.
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