By Amanda Larch
By tapping into one of West Virginia’s greatest resources—its people—the Mountain State can continue to thrive and enhance its economy. Whether it is students, those ready to enter the workforce or those looking for a career change, West Virginia will continue to thrive and enhance its economy by investing in these resources, and many organizations are doing just that.
The Lumina Foundation estimates that in 2018, approximately 42% of working aged West Virginians held a postsecondary credential, including an associate degree or higher. A Georgetown University study found that by 2020, slightly more than half of all the jobs in West Virginia would require education past high school, whether it be a two-year degree, training certificate, four-year degree or higher.
To prepare for this, the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (WVHEPC) set a goal to help put more West Virginians on the path to academic and career success, according to Sarah Armstrong Tucker, chancellor of WVHEPC.
Through various initiatives, grants and educational programs, West Virginia students and those who are entering or reentering the workforce, as well as those preparing for a postsecondary or higher education, can prosper and explore various job opportunities. West Virginia’s Climb is one of those initiatives. The program was unveiled in September 2018, with the goal of having 60% of the state’s workforce equipped with a high-quality postsecondary credential by the year 2030.
“We know some of the fastest growing, in-demand fields are in areas such as health care, manufacturing and information technology (IT),” says Tucker. “This is why with the WV Invests grant, in particular, we have worked with the West Virginia Department of Commerce to align programs eligible for the grant—which is a last-dollar-in program that covers tuition and qualifying fees for associate degrees—with the fields that are most in demand for jobs in the state.”
In January, the state’s Community and Technical College System (CTCS) was awarded a nearly $4.2 million grant from Arnold Ventures to pilot a program at West Virginia University (WVU) Parkersburg and Blue Ridge Community and Technical College (CTC) that supports students as they work toward their credentials.
Modeled after the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs at City University of New York, the Ascend program will provide academic, personal and financial support to help students at those institutions complete their degrees in high-demand fields, such as advanced manufacturing, IT, welding and health care. The goal is to pilot the program at WVU Parkersburg and Blue Ridge CTC, with the hope of increasing the number of students who enter and graduate from high-demand programs, and then move on to high-wage jobs, according to Tucker.
“If effective, the CTCS will work to scale the program to all two-year institutions across the state,” she says. “An initial cohort of qualifying students at each school has been selected to participate in the program this fall, with full implementation in fall 2021 and continuing through spring 2025, serving a total of 600 students.”
The Learn and Earn program, another initiative from the WVHEPC, connects employers with students through colleges and allows them to take classes while simultaneously getting paid for work experiences.
“Through this program, we are seeing great success in students being prepared after graduation,” says Tucker. “In fact, though job placement isn’t guaranteed, we see these programs resulting in at least 90% of graduates being hired by the companies that train them.”
Apprenticeships are another way to engage potential employees and give students an opportunity to experience the workforce for the first time. In July 2019, the CTCS was awarded a nearly $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to create Apprenticeships in Motion (AIM), a program that works to train and place apprentices in middle- to high-skilled information technology occupations, which are in increasingly high demand throughout the state.
“With priority for small businesses, AIM connects employers with students through colleges, allowing apprentices to take technical courses while gaining paid work experiences. The student pay is shared by the company and AIM, with students receiving at least $12 per hour to work in an IT field such as coding and cybersecurity,” says Tucker.
This past summer, WVHEPC and CTCS partnered with Philanthropy West Virginia to apply for a $750,000 grant from the Ascendium Education Group, an active postsecondary education philanthropy, to support student success and accelerate degree completion in West Virginia.
“Working with Philanthropy West Virginia, partners will work to bring more allies to the table, secure additional private donations and leverage existing public investments to grow student success,” she says.
The Ascendium grant will fund key components of this work, which supports the WV Climb initiative, including:
- A statewide open educational resources initiative that encourages faculty to adopt course materials available to students through the internet at no cost
- An emergency grant program to offer financial assistance to students when certain unexpected expenses arise that might interfere with their ability to remain in school
- A financial aid program that will turn private donations into grant awards to offset the cost of equipment or materials, such as tools, stethoscopes and uniforms, in high-cost programs for students with demonstrated financial need
- Professional development to faculty advisers and full-time advisers to improve advising efforts for students with specific needs
- Direct work with select colleges and universities to improve student support services, including admissions, financial aid, registration and academic advising
“One of the key strengths of an attainment goal campaign like West Virginia’s Climb is its ability to rally a diverse group of partners around a common goal—increasing the number of West Virginians with a high-quality postsecondary credential,” says Tucker. “Similar efforts in other states have shown that these cross-sector collaborations help all partners make better use of scarce resources and ultimately improve the odds that we will reach our aspirational goal.”
Tucker says CTCs are important to West Virginia because they are an opportunity for residents to get a college education for a reasonable price with on-the-job training in a variety of fields, and with the WVHEPC WV Invests grant, students can attend these institutions tuition free.
“With nine schools serving every county in the state, students can attend community colleges as an affordable way to work toward a bachelor’s degree or to graduate and head right into a good-paying job,” she says. “When employers partner with us to meet their workforce needs, students can be assured that those jobs are there when they graduate.”
About the Author
Amanda Larch is the production manager for West Virginia Executive. A Hurricane, WV, native, she is a recent Marshall University graduate and holds a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. She previously worked as an intern for The Herald-Dispatch and served as executive editor for Marshall’s student newspaper, The Parthenon. Larch can be reached at ajl@wvexecutive.com.
