Berkeley City College awarded Trade Adjustment Assistance-DBS grant

BCC will receive $300,000 per year for the next three years from a Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)-DBS (Design It, Build It, Ship It) grant. The funds, part of a San Francisco/East Bay area ten-college consortium, is a regional workforce initiative that will allow the colleges to build accelerated, intensive and regionally articulated programs to train dislocated workers and unemployed adults. BCC will develop programs and “stackable” certificates in Biotechnology, Computer Science and Engineering, Mathematics, and Environmental Chemistry.

One of the college’s goals will be to develop career pathways and “Stepping Stones to Science Careers.” Combining this with BCC’s California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) will move the college further toward becoming a leader in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) areas. The new funding also will provide support for student services and counseling, collaboration among faculty, and building community partnerships. Several of the grant’s goals will enable BCC to develop:

• stronger stackable certificate programs in advanced manufacturing and logistics and transportation, and biotechnology;
• internal articulation between advanced manufacturing and STEM-centered engineering pathways at the community colleges, CSUs and UCs;
• integrated systems for strengthening the enrollment of job seekers into One-Stop career systems and the subsequent job, placement and tracking of students;
• a better regional system for serving industry and business;
• integration of new technologies emerging from regional incubators like Lawrence Berkeley National Lab into regional business and the workforce;
• increased pathways from community colleges to four-year university partners; and
• technology-enabled learning strategies and other emerging methodologies for assisting displaced and adult job seekers in the region.

More information about the grant, BCC’s college and community partners and what it means for the future of curriculum development and occupational training at BCC, will appear in the November issue of BCC Today and in a President’s Bulletin from Dr. Deborah Budd.