San Bernardino Community College District Awarded $15m to Create STEM Incubator

The two colleges of the San Bernardino Community College District (SBCCD) have, combined, been awarded $1.3 million as part of the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Training (TAACCCT) competitive grant program, which is co-administered by the Department of Labor Employment Training Administration and the Department of Education. SBCCD’s colleges, San Bernardino Valley College (SBVC), in partnership with the Economic Development and Corporate Training (EDCT) Division, and Crafton Hills College (CHC), are part of the Inland Empire Regional Training Consortium (IERTC), which with Chaffey College as the consortium leader, received the only award given in California, nearly $15 million. The four-year grant has three operational years and a final year for data collection and research. The IERTC is a partnership between 10 community colleges including Chaffey College, Barstow Community College, College of the Desert, Crafton Hills College, Mt. San Jacinto Community College, MiraCosta College, Norco College, Riverside City College, San Bernardino Valley College, Victor Valley College, and CSU, San Bernardino and UC Riverside. Each college/university in the IERTC will receive a share of the funds of the grant which is designed to improve manufacturing training in the Inland Empire region of Southern California. IERTC also has partnerships with employers, public workforce systems, and other key education, government and business partners. SBVC was awarded $1.25m and CHC, $50,000. The grant will be used to create the STEM Education Business Incubator (SEBI) Center. STEM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Located at California Steel Industries in Fontana, the SEBI will serve the areas of Rancho Cucamonga, Norco, Barstow, Palm Desert, San Jacinto, Victorville, San Bernardino, Yucaipa and Riverside cities in both San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. The IERTC was created to develop the highly trained/highly technical workforce necessary to advance industry and the economy of the Inland Empire, and the SEBI Educational programs and certificates will be aligned with the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM), Institute for Manufacturing including ACT, NIMS, MSSC, NCCER, AWS and OSHA. IERTC plans to implement an advanced integrated, highly flexible career pathway approach with various certificates and degrees. The Economic Development and Corporate Training (EDCT) Division of the SBCCD will work with SBVC on the SBCCD award. “A key mission of the SBCCD, carried out in large part through the EDCT Division, is to stimulate the economic prosperity of the Inland Empire through workforce development, and this program exemplifies the Division’s goal, said SBCCD Chancellor Bruce Baron. “This program is specifically designed to help create high-paying jobs here in the Inland Empire.” The EDCT and SBVC will partner with industry to re-align several for-credit classes in Industrial Maintenance Mechanic and Welding Applications. According to Robert Levesque, Director of Workforce Development, “A key element is the inclusion of stackable credentials that will provide adult learners with industry-recognized certifications to reduce the time to get a job in high demand industries. “Stackable” means that once a student completes one course, they will be poised to “stack” or add additional complimentary courses leading to an industry recognized credential. A minimum of 100 unemployed workers will receive this for-credit instruction during the 2nd and 3rd years of the grant. In addition, to address the immediate training needs of current employees, customized not-for-credit training will be offered in Industrial Maintenance Mechanic to 64 incumbent workers at SEBI. The customized training will allow the District to refine the curriculum with direct employer input. Dr. Matthew Isaac, the EDCT Chief Executive Officer, noted that this award, through the creation of the SEBI, is a “job-driven training program” that will “provide highly technical training to potential employees and then bring together those employees with employers who need them.”