By Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
August 26, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — When you make an investment, it’s usually a good idea to keep an eye on that investment, to make sure it’s paying off for you.

When Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez came to Kansas City last week, he was checking on an investment. By the end of the tour, he was excited to see the investment’s return.

Metropolitan Community College hosted the Secretary of Labor last week as Perez stopped by the MCC – Business and Technology campus in the East Bottoms to meet instructors, students, business partners and local leaders and saw firsthand the influence federally funded training grants have had on Kansas City and its residents. Since 2011, MCC has received three Missouri Workforce Innovation Networks Grants [MoWINS] grants — MoHealthWINs (2011), MoManufacturingsWINs (2012) and MoSTEMWINs (2014) — which utilize federal funding to train unemployed, underemployed and veterans for high-skill jobs in health care, manufacturing and science, technology, engineering and math [STEM] fields.

The grants are administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, in partnership with the Department of Education. The federal grant program is called the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training [TAACCCT]. The intent behind the grants is to ensure community colleges are well-positioned to serve workers displaced due to jobs shifting overseas. Through TAACCCT, $2 billion over four years goes to community colleges and other higher-ed institutions to deliver education and career training that can be completed in two years or less.

MCC received about $3 million in MoHealthWINs funding to train people for four career paths: environmental services, health care information technology, computer support specialist and certified nursing assistant. MCC’s share of the MoManufacturingWINs grant was $1.8 million and allows participants to choose from four career paths: welding, ABB Robotics industrial maintenance, computer-integrated machining and manufacturing (CIMM), and warehouse logistics. MCC received $2.7 million to train workers through the MoSTEMWINs program.

After meeting with MCC Chancellor Mark James, Perez got a private tour of three areas at MCC, the general machining area, robotics lab, and the warehouse and logistics area. At each stop, Perez asked teachers what they liked best about working at MCC, to which all responses heralded the opportunity to help students form a new career path and the ability to teach something they loved doing.

“Nobody gets rich teaching at community colleges, but they’re building community and changing lives,” Perez said.

James said he was excited to show-off his school and the opportunities the grants have awarded its students.

“These grants have truly changed the lives of some of our students,” James said. “It’s important that we continue to connect education with the business community to provide skilled employees for our community.”

After the tour, Perez noted how everything he saw was impressive, especially learning MCC’s job placement rate post program graduation. Perez pointed out the students in the machining shop, “whose placements rates are well over 90 percent.”

“I like to compare the Department of Labor to Match.com,” Perez quipped. “We help connect job seekers with businesses.”

One of the students who was able to meet and speak with Secretary Perez was Dwayne Martin. A former student, Martin received his forklift certificate through a program at MCC. Two weeks after he graduated, he found a job at Staples, where he’s been working full-time for the past year.

“I went through a lot of programs before coming to MCC,” Martin said. “But MCC taught me things beyond the basic skills I needed to succeed. Because of that, I’ve been able to apply what I learned and succeed.”

Pryor to enrolling at MCC, Martin said he was a cook and was computer illiterate. Since graduating the program, his skills have continually grown.

“MCC kept their promises in helping me better myself,” Martin said.

When people like Martin, and other students the Secretary of Labor met on his tour of the school, succeed, Perez said the nation gets stronger.

“I saw the importance of upskilling as a core component of building an America of shared prosperity,” Perez said. “When more people succeed, we’re stronger.”