On Thursday, Governor Jay Nixon toured the Franklin County campus of East Central College in Union, and while he was there, announced that the college will receive a $769,000 Training for Tomorrow grant, with which to train students for careers in five high-demand fields. The Governor launched the program two months ago, after meetings with business and educational leaders made it clear that Missouri needed to ramp up training efforts to prepare workers to compete in the 21st century. As the economy improves and employers begin to hire again, they’ll need workers with training in fields such as health care, technology, green energy and computers. Training for Tomorrow was designed to get these programs up and running as quickly as possible.  

East Central College has identified business management and technology, culinary arts, health information technology, an LPN-RN nursing program and chemical technology as five fields of the future. Using the grant funds, East Central will develop a variety of new degree programs; expand existing programs into evening and weekend options to fit the schedules of working students; and reconfigure other courses for distance-learning formats. Over the past two months, Missouri community colleges have worked quickly with local businesses to identify workforce needs and submit applications for funding to the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

East Central College President Ed Jackson says “Employers in Franklin County have made it clear that they have a pressing need for workers with specific knowledge, training and skills, and East Central College is developing courses to meet those needs.” Funding for the grants comes from the Second Supplemental Disaster Recovery Community Development Block Grant, a federal program to assist with economic recovery efforts. Training for Tomorrow grants for community colleges across Missouri are still being finalized, and Governor Nixon will continue his tour of colleges in the coming days to announce further Training for Tomorrow funding.