........................................................................................................................................................................................

A consortium of 11 two-year colleges led by Santa Fe Community College has been awarded $15 million in federal grants to offer new and additional training statewide for health care fields.

As the leader of the group, SFCC is getting about $5.6 million, some of which will be used for coordinating the effort among the various schools, said Randy Grissom, the colleges president.

The grants will go toward training and improving health care career pathways for college students, Grissom said. Those pathways will have multiple entry and exit possibilities, so that students will be able to move from one jurisdiction to another and remain in an educational program. The grants were announced Sunday by Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Perez said his department has invested nearly $23 million in New Mexico over the last four years, part of a long-term commitment to ensure that workers have access to training for the specific skills employers need to stay competitive in the global economy.

The other schools in the consortium and the amounts of the individual grants are Central New Mexico Community College ($1,983,778), San Juan College ($1,366,921), Eastern New Mexico University Roswell ($1,145,444), Eastern New Mexico University Ruidoso ($576,767), New Mexico State University Alamogordo ($807,012), the University of New Mexico -Taos ($688,983), UNM -Valencia County ($788,029), UNM Los Alamos ($579,961), UNM Gallup ($866,967) and Mesalands Community College ($553,623).

SFCC took the lead in applying for the Labor Department grants, but all of the schools as well as other agencies were involved, Grissom said. He mentioned private sector groups and the Department of Workforce Solutions. An aide, Janet Wise, said the congressional delegation was also extremely helpful.

By 2030, New Mexico is expected to have the fourth-highest rate of residents 65 and older, Grissom said. The need for nurses, community health care workers, dental workers, home health aides and paramedics will be enormous, with a focus on creating access to health care in underserved and rural areas, workers who will interface with and advocate for the patient.

But the key to the story, he said, is how the 11 colleges got together and worked hard to come up with ways to serve New Mexico.

The New Mexico grants are part of $450 million in 71 grants awarded in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

By 2020, six of every 10 jobs will require a credential beyond a high school degree, Biden said.

Read the rest here:

11 NM colleges share in $15M health care grant