BCC awarded Performance Incentive Fund grant

PITTSFIELD – Berkshire Community College (BCC) will receive a $88,000 grant to accelerate college readiness and developmental math pathways, and enhance student advising and civic engagement programming.

“These grants will support our efforts to connect more of our students to meaningful work and will help provide more of those students with the educational and skill-building opportunities they will need to succeed in our knowledge-based economy,” said Massachusetts Education Secretary Paul Reville.

This grant money is part of the $4 million Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick recently announced would go to community colleges as part of the Performance Incentive Fund (PIF).

“A stronger community college system is good for students, employers and the whole commonwealth,” said Gov. Patrick. “These additional resources will further accelerate this transformation and help get people to work.”

The Fiscal Year 2013 budget set aside $5 million for community colleges to be used for 1) the development of efficiency measures that may include consolidation of information technology platforms and services; 2) creating innovative methods for delivering quality higher education that increase capacity, reduce costs and promote student completion; 3) engaging in statewide and regional collaborations with other public higher education institutions that reduce costs, increase efficiency and promote quality in the areas of academic programming and campus management; and 4) improving student learning outcomes assessments set forth by the board of higher education under the vision project.

“By partnering with our community colleges and strengthening their ties to businesses and career training, we will help close the skills gap facing many industries,” said Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray. “Ensuring more students and those seeking work are trained in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) is a major component of our efforts to increase skill training and support job creation and professional growth.”

These grants also support the Patrick-Murray administration’s goals of increasing workforce alignment between community colleges and local/statewide employers and providing students with additional skills training in high-demand fields.

“We look forward to seeing these grants applied to advancing the skills of our workforce,” said Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Joanne F. Goldstein. “Our state’s career centers are already engaged with the community college system and businesses, and we will continue to foster collaborations to help our talented labor pool succeed in today’s developing marketplace.”

Other Massachusetts community colleges to receive PIF grant funding include Holyoke Community College and Springfield Technical Community College.

“We are delighted by the commonwealth’s investment in its community colleges and its recognition of their importance to the health of our state and local economies,” said Holyoke Community College President Bill Messner. “These funds will strengthen our ability to serve as a gateway to careers and continued education for our communities.”

Posted by Catherine M. Krummey on September 27, 2012. Filed under Education News,News,State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry