Blogs:

In keeping with the efforts of our President to enhance quality and improve American higher education, there has been an announcement by higher education officials that community colleges will receive at least $2 billion Federal grant from the eagerly awaited program.

The much anticipated program is known as the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants Program. Through this program significant efforts are being made to improve America’s struggling economy and meet our President’s degree completion goals.

With the help of this grant, community colleges will essentially be able to restructure job training programs after creating and expanding them. This program will also benefit businesses both regional and local as it will initiate new training programs and education fuelled by reward projects.

Our President has a very high goal of producing five million college graduates by the year 2020 and also aspires to provide one year post secondary education to every single American. Two year American colleges will be awarded $500 million by the US Education Department and US Department of Labor which over the next four years will total to an allocation of $2 billion.

A $12 billion plan was laid down by our President in the year 2009. Known as the American Graduation Initiative, this was a major grant program for community colleges that sadly was squashed by the legislative process.

The collapse of this ambitious program hugely disappointed the officials of community colleges. Now however, they are really grateful to the Federal government for following through with their promises to take care of their financial needs.

Most community colleges are refining their methods and reexamining them to provide cutting edge training and education and this grant is offered in appreciation for their efforts says American Association of Community Colleges’ senior government relations vice president David S. Baime.

Hopefully, we will find a considerable amount of the grant invested in online education. Openly available online courses are being proposed already by the Education and Labor Departments. This in turn supports government’s initiative on providing free learning materials through the online medium for low income students who cannot afford to buy books.

From the perspective of individual colleges, this is indeed a great opportunity as each one of them can earn between $2.5 and $5 million as grants. The inherent purpose of this grant is to ensure that all Americans are equipped with the ability to obtain degrees of higher levels apart from achieving enough credentials and certifications to help better their employment chances says US Department of Education’s spokesperson Sarah Gast.

According to Hilda L. Solis, the Secretary of Labor, everyone deserves to benefit from this program especially workers who are impacted by trade. The program will help them support their family by obtaining employment.

The program makes it possible for workers to acquire necessary skills and credentials that are recognized by the industry by attending school as these grants will make it possible for colleges to create necessary programs. This in turn will help them find a good job in a growing industry.