Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) is the recipient of a Strengthening Community Colleges grant awarded by the Department of Labor (DOL). GRCC is utilizing grant funds to implement the Michigan Coalition for Accelerated Healthcare Pathways. The Michigan Coalition includes five community colleges who are collaborating to address the needs of employers in the healthcare industry by increasing the capacity and responsiveness of Michigan community colleges to provide a pipeline of skilled workers. Each of the colleges are actively partnering with local employers and workforce development boards and are collectively working towards three goals: 1) Implement new and expanded online and hybrid programming along with targeted strategies to enable participants to upskill at an accelerated pace, and transition from unemployment to re-employment or enter the workforce; 2) Scale use of accelerated online pathways and expand access to curricula to make the program widely available to other Michigan colleges using Michigan Community College Association’s (MCCC) virtual platform, Michigan Colleges Online (MCO); and 3) Migrate essential student services to a virtual environment. PRE is partnering with The Michigan Coalition to conduct a formative and summative evaluation of the SCC grant. Evaluation activities include ongoing project management and check-ins with the GRCC grant team, college staff surveys, college staff interviews and focus groups, program participant surveys, and employer/community partner interviews. In addition, PRE is designing and administering a quarterly outcomes survey for college representatives to report progress made by their institution towards addressing performance outcomes. Deliverables include supporting the grant team with quarterly DOL reporting, quarterly feedback sessions including recommendations for program updates and evaluation insights, and annual evaluation reports.
