College Receives $2.2 Million U.S. Department of Labor Grant for IT Career Training

BOSTON, Oct. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bunker Hill Community College will receive $2.2 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop new jobs skills in IT (Information Technology) for displaced workers, BHCC President Mary L. Fifield announced today. The total grant – almost $20 million – was awarded to the National Information, Security, and Geospatial Technology Consortium (NISGTC), which will be housed at Collin College in Texas. All of the members of this national consortium, which includes Bunker Hill Community College and six other community colleges, have National Science Foundation affiliations.

The selection process for this grant was highly competitive. More than 200 community colleges around the country applied and only 32 were selected by the Department of Labor in coordination with the U.S. Department of Education.  

Bunker Hill Community College's $2.2 million grant will be used to work with its affiliated colleges in the Boston-area Advanced Technological Education Connections (BATEC) Center to develop and deliver IT programming, support services and job search/placement assistance to participants.  The grant monies will be used, in particular, to train an IT workforce for jobs with documented labor shortages.  Expanded partnerships with community-based organizations will be developed so that IT courses and programs can be offered at community sites.

"This is an exciting opportunity for Bunker Hill Community College and its BATEC partners to meet the needs of the IT workforce in the 21st century," said Dean of Professional Studies Bogusia Wojciechowska.

Bunker Hill Community College is the largest community college in Massachusetts. The College enrolls approximately 13,000 students on two campuses and at four satellite locations. BHCC is one of the most diverse institutions of higher education in Massachusetts. Six in ten students are persons of color and more than half of BHCC's students are women. The College also enrolls more than 700 international students who come from more than 90 countries and speak 75 different languages. 

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Colleen Roach, Executive Director of Communications & Marketing
Bunker Hill Community College
250 New Rutherford Avenue
Boston, MA 02129; Phone: (617) 228 2177
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Bunker Hill Community College