 Courtesy photo. |
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FLAGSTAFF — Coconino Community College received a $750,000 grant from the Lowe’s Foundation to help grow the college’s Construction Technology Management programs.
CCC was one of 10 colleges nationwide chosen as recipients of the Lowe’s Foundation Gable Grants program. The program is a five-year, $50 million commitment by Lowe’s to help prepare 50,000 people for skilled trades careers. This year’s recipients were awarded nearly $8 million in grants to help bolster skilled trades training infrastructure.
“We’re incredibly honored to have been selected as one the first-ever Gable Grants Recipients from the Lowe’s Foundation,” said CCC President Dr. Eric Heiser. “This gift will allow us to build our already growing Construction Management program and allow us to add even more students to the high-demand, high-wage field within Flagstaff and Coconino County.”
With the grant, CCC will expand its current skilled trades training programs in construction, HVAC, plumbing and electrical. CCC also has plans to remodel its current facility to create more lab space for students, upgrade equipment, computers and software, and hire additional instructors.
The United States faces an acute skilled trades workforce crisis with 85 percent of contractors reporting trouble finding skilled workers nationwide, and the story is the same for Coconino County.
Heiser said, “Given the dire need for affordable housing in and around Flagstaff, the ability to add more skilled workers to the booming construction industry couldn’t have come at a better time. My sincere thanks to the Lowe’s Foundation for choosing us as a partner to further this valuable program.”
According to information from Lowe’s, there are an estimated 546,000 new skilled tradespeople needed nationwide on top of the normal pace of hiring to meet demand in 2023 alone.
This is the first distribution of the Lowe’s Foundation Gable Grants. All 10 recipients are community and technical colleges from across the country with innovative skilled trades training programs. Each school will receive a two-year grant to support infrastructure needs to grow existing or build new programs.
For more information about the grants, visit lowes.com/foundation. For more information about CCC’s Skilled Trades, visit www.coconino.edu/paths/construction-trades.
About Coconino Community College
CCC has served residents across 18,000 square miles of Coconino County since 1991. The College has the goal of improving the lives of our residents through workforce development and higher education.
CCC provides affordable tuition and offers certificate programs and two-year associate degrees in academic and career fields. CCC also has programs that ease student transition to any of the three state universities, including the award-winning CCC2NAU.
CCC reaches out to the more rural portions of the County and Tribal Lands. Instructional sites offer classes through online, in-person and Zoom video conferencing classes to meet the needs of students in rural and remote areas. More than 20 percent of CCC’s students are Native American learners.
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