Missouri’s community colleges and Linn State Technical College have been awarded a $20 million grant to train an estimated 4,600 workers in the health services/health sciences industry. The grant, awarded today by the U.S. Department of Labor TAATCCT program, is a transformative opportunity for Missouri and will bring the state’s public two-year institutions together to improve the way they educate adult learners.
The MoHealthWINs project will train Missourians for jobs in the following high demand areas: health informatics, therapeutic services, diagnostic services, and support services. Instructional programs and services will address the following priorities:
- Priority 1: Accelerate Progress of Low-Skilled Workers
- Strategies: MoHealthWINs will develop a healthcare portal that will assess and develop participants’ skills, restructure courses into modular formats, and enhance relationships between colleges and the public workforce system.
- Priority 2: Improve Retention and Achievement Rates and/or Reduce Time to Completion
- Strategies: MoHealthWINs will integrate basic academics into contextualized modules and provide supplemental instruction, develop intensive student services interventions, and support articulation of credit for coursework and work experience.
- Priority 3: Build Programs that Meet Industry Needs
- Strategies: MoHealthWINs will focus efforts on industry needs through the development of learning communities, employer engagement, internships, and leveraging tuition assistance programs to implement “learn and earn” opportunities.
- Priority 4: Strengthen Online and Technology-Enabled Learning
- Strategies: MoHealthWINs will develop hybrid, technology-enabled programs that include strategies to improve digital literacy courses and help workers become successful online learners.
Lead Research & Evaluation Firm
Cosgrove & Associates has contracted with the Missouri Community College Association (MCCA) and the MoHealthWINs and MoManufacturingWINs Consortiums to ensure the systematic and timely collection of data required to meet DOL reporting and accountability requirements, Consortium research, and evaluation information needs. Cosgrove & Associates is working with MCCA and Consortium member colleges to address the following evaluation questions:
- Are individual college strategies and statewide strategies being implemented?
- Are program participants who enrolled with low academic success improving their skill set?
- Are grant participants being retained at the appropriate targeted rate?
- Are grant participants completing the desired degree/certificate award?
- How do the students involved compare to similar students who are not involved in the grant strategies in their progress, retention rate, completion rate, and employment rate?
- Are grant participants securing employment in occupations targeted by the Consortium after completion of the program?
- Are individual colleges demonstrating the capacity to use performance tracking and program evaluation data to continuously improve grant designated strategies and programs?