College gets new grant for job training

In a state effort to increase employment in energy and manufacturing, U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester have helped pass legislation that will give Montana’s two-year colleges $25 million.

Flathead Valley Community College will receive $3,466,107 as part of this push for new training programs.

Brad Eldredge, FVCC Director of Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning, said the money will mean large improvements in the college’s occupational training programs.

“We can make $3.4 million go a long way,” he said. “The purpose of the legislation is to help displaced workers get employment, and it is focused more on the occupational side of the college.”

The grant money going to FVCC is the second largest allotment in the state. Only Great Falls College received more, with $8.5 million.

Eldredge said the money wasn’t given out by student enrollment or school endowment but by the ultimate impact of the money on Montana’s economy.

Great Falls received such a large portion of the $25 million because it was the primary applicant and will administer the grant over the next several years.

The goal for the grant is to create jobs for 9,000 Montanans in the skilled fields of energy and manufacturing.

FVCC has already picked some wish-list items to improve. Some of these include equipment for the welding program and other advanced manufacturing courses.

As one of the largest two-year colleges in the state, in a relatively high unemployment county, FVCC is slated to have one of the largest economic impacts from the grant money.

U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., also was a sponsor of the bill.

The grant awards were announced Wednesday morning, with the money coming from the U.S. Department of Labor. Baucus secured the grant money in the 2010 budget and the application from Great Falls College accessed it.

“One of the messages we heard over and over at our jobs summit in Butte is that creating new jobs in Montana doesn’t do us any good unless our workers are trained and ready to fill them,” Baucus said in a statement. “I’m proud of Montana colleges for stepping up to the plate.”

Montana employers — 57 of them — have agreed to help the colleges with the program, offering jobs ranging from working the Bakken oil fields to trucking to building aircraft and other skilled industries.

“It’s very important to us,” Eldredge said. “It’s going to allow us to do something that we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.”

FVCC has received several large grants and donations in the last few months, bucking a stagnant economy.

“We’ve been on a very good stretch in terms of resources,” Eldredge said.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.