Will apply grant towards engineering technician training; how about the Verde Valley?
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Yavapai College a $855,350 grant. It will be used at CTEC to provide among other things internships with employers. The grant is expected to provide up to 20 student interns with work-based experiences through paid internships with local business partners.
Currently, CTEC provides students with hands-on training in Applied Pre-Engineering, Computer Numerical Control, Integrated Systems Engineering and other vocational programs. These programs are open to West County high school students but not East County high school students. CTEC is also difficult to reach from the East side of the County by part-time workers, single parents, and the unemployed.
The grant is also intended to help fund equipment enhancements and outreach events for rural high school students. How much of the grant, the criteria and which high schools will receive the assistance is not clear.
The grant may to some extent duplicate training funds that were already available under programs administered by the Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG). NACOG provides employers and communities access to economic development funding within the region.
NACOG supports programs to assist economically distressed areas, planning regions, cities and counties to undertake significant economic development planning, policy making and implementation efforts. It may match employers and students as interns where there is an agreement with Yavapai College regarding a particular program. Currently, it works closely with a for-profit training facility located in Cottonwood, which reflects past difficulties NACOG has experienced with Yavapai College.
Recall that in 2012, Yavapai College received $1.87 million of a $13,477,799 grant awarded to a consortium of five Arizona community colleges to train people for high-skill, high-wage employment and advancement in energy and mining industries. All of the funds received by the College were spent on the West side of the County at CTEC. Much of it went for developing the line-worker program over there.
Keeping the public in the Dark. Because the College District Governing Board does not require detailed reports regarding grant expenditures, the public will probably never know how much was spent where and for what of this grant.