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Gov. Bill Lee and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission have announced that Northeast State Community College has been awarded a $1,920,985 grant through the Governor’s Investment in Vocational Education (GIVE) program.

The GIVE program, established soon after Gov. Lee took office in 2019, is designed to address skills gaps in Tennessee’s workforce by supporting the development of career pathways that connect postsecondary institutions with local K-12 school systems and local employers.

“We greatly appreciate Governor Lee’s leadership in advancing the skilled trades,” said Northeast State President Dr. Jeff McCord. “This investment will further Northeast State’s commitment to meeting workforce needs across our region.”

This is the third round of GIVE grants to be awarded and will allocate a total of $41 million to foster regional partnerships between community colleges, Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology (TCATs), and local industries.  The new funding will support 23 projects statewide, through partnerships based at 20 different community colleges and TCATs.

Northeast State applied for a GIVE Grant to establish the Building Economies through Skilled Trades (BEST).  The program is a partnership with Northeast TN Local Workforce Development Board/First TN Development District, Kingsport City Schools/Dobyns-Bennett High School & DB Excel, Burleson Construction Co., CAM Industrial Solutions, J.A. Street & Associates, and Quesenberry’s Construction.

Northeast State and its partners will implement the BEST project to relocate and enhance its Carpentry and Machine Tool programs, leveraging newly available instructional space on the Kingsport campus to better utilize instructional resources, expand enrollment capacity, and strengthen the regional workforce pipeline in these high-demand fields. The result will be an increased pipeline of individuals entering and obtaining industry-recognized credentials in Carpentry and Machine Tool. The project is expected to serve at least 88 students over the four-year performance period.

This award marks the third GIVE grant Northeast State has received. The college received a grant in 2020 that supported the creation of hands-on computer networking labs while increasing the number of trained and Cisco-certified computer networking technicians in the region. That grant also funded dual enrollment opportunities for high school students, and test preparation courses for certification. The college received a grant of almost $1 million in 2021 to establish the Automotive and Aviation certificates.

Participants may be traditional or adult students, including unemployed and under-employed individuals and incumbent workers, or high school students participating in dual enrollment programs. Northeast State, through its Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing (RCAM), delivers Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship programs, both as an apprenticeship sponsor and as a related technical instruction provider for company-sponsored programs. Carpentry and Machining, both four-year apprenticeship programs, are among the available apprenticeship pathways. The college seeks to use the grant funding to enhance lab space and degree opportunities across its five-county service region.

In announcing the new round of GIVE Grants, Gov. Lee said, “The state with the workers will win every time, and that’s why workforce development has been one of my top priorities since day one,” said Gov. Lee. “As a result, companies are choosing to invest and expand in our state, creating greater opportunity and quality of life for all Tennesseans.”

Since creating GIVE, the state has invested $91.5 million into the program to support rural workforce development through technical education. The first and second rounds of GIVE funding in 2019 and 2021 served an estimated 15,500 students. Tennessee has made notable progress in rural workforce development which has resulted in securing over 41,500 new jobs and nearly $19 billion in capital investment in rural counties since 2019.

Grants of up to $2 million each are awarded through the GIVE program to collaborative efforts that create or expand academic programs, develop work-based learning experiences, or provide industry-recognized certifications in areas of high demand. This initiative not only aims to meet the current needs of employers but also to stimulate economic growth by ensuring that Tennessee’s education system is aligned with workforce requirements.

Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Flora W. Tydings commended the colleges for initiating the partnerships and applying for and winning the grants to benefit career and technical education in their communities. “The programs and projects funded by this latest round of GIVE Grants will create many new opportunities for Tennesseans to learn career-building skills to compete and advance in today’s technology-based economy, benefitting their families across generations and building strong communities.

“Our community and technical colleges are the front-line providers of academic, career, and technical education,” Dr. Tydings said. “We’re grateful to Governor Lee and the General Assembly for recognizing the need to bridge the skills gap and establishing the GIVE program to help close it.”