SCC Hosts Gov. Nixon's Press Conference

On March 5 Governor Jay Nixon visited the campus to announce a $1.1 million Training for Tomorrow grant. The grant will help students prepare for careers in high-demand fields. The three fields that will be focused on are: surveying; technology and sustainability; and business development.

Training for Tomorrow was launched just a mere two months ago. In total, there is a $12 million initiative to educate Missourians in high technical fields. The grant is going to create or expand training programs to serve additional students.

"At St. Charles Community College, we work closely with local employers to determine their workforce needs, and we develop programs that target those needs and train workers who are ready to hit the ground running, "President John McGuire said. "Using Training for Tomorrow dollars, we will work seamlessly with local businesses to ensure that we're preparing workers with the right skills to move our economy forward."

In order to receive the grant, community colleges around Missouri had to submit applications to the Missouri Department of Economic Development. The grants were competitive, and colleges had to provide specific details within their applications.

"After sitting down with business and education leaders, it was clear that Missouri needed to ramp up training efforts to prepare workers to compete in the 21^st century," Gov. Nixon said. "As employers begin to hire again, they are going to need workers with training in fields such as health care, technology, green energy and computers. Training for Tomorrow will help get these programs up and running as quickly as possible- to get Missourians enrolled, trained and back on the job."

After making the announcement, Gov. Nixon took a few questions from the press. Reporters from News Channel 5 and Channel 2 were at the press conference. Their main concern was the up and coming budget cuts. Nearly half a billion dollars will have to be cut from the original budget proposal.

"We are going to have to resize, reshape and restructure some portions of government," Gov. Nixon said.

Even though budget cuts are inevitable, Training for Tomorrow is one thing that is here to stay.