Commerce RI awards three school districts $200K each for advanced training programs in high school

USING A PROGRAM that began when R.I. Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor was education commissioner of Connecticut as a model, the R.I. Commerce Corp. has awarded a total of $600,000 to three school districts to offer community college classes and direct job training to students in Newport, Providence and Westerly. Here Pryor is seen with Gov. Gina M. Raimondo shortly after the 2014 election. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
USING A PROGRAM that began when R.I. Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor was education commissioner of Connecticut as a model, the R.I. Commerce Corp. has awarded a total of $600,000 to three school districts to offer community college classes and direct job training to students in Newport, Providence and Westerly. Here Pryor is seen with Gov. Gina M. Raimondo shortly after the 2014 election. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

PROVIDENCE — The Newport, Westerly and Providence school systems were named Monday as the initial districts in Rhode Island for the P-Tech initiative, designed to allow public school students to receive workplace training and a community college education while attending high school.
The districts each were awarded $200,000 in startup funds to appoint a vice principal in charge of the program, which will begin in the 2016-17 school year.
The board of the R.I. Commerce Corp. approved the initiative, and the naming of the three districts, in its meeting Monday.
The program, in place in Connecticut since 2011, is intended to provide participating students with an associate’s degree in a sought-after program within five to six years of entering high school, and will follow a prescribed schedule of classes.
The specific schedules and recruitment initiatives will be determined by system-based coordinating committees, which will include representatives of Commerce RI, the school system, the Community College of Rhode Island and industry leaders.
The districts were selected because they had expressed interest in the program, had the capacity to support the initiative and were located near both CCRI campuses and businesses that are interested in mentoring students and providing workplace internships. After the initial startup funding, the districts will absorb the cost of the program within their local budgets, using existing teaching staff.
Colleen Burns Jermain, superintendent of the Newport Public Schools, said the program will provide another avenue for students who want specific career training, but will not limit their education. If a student follows the program and then decides to pursue a four-year degree after graduation, that path will remain open, she said.
In Newport, where more than 60 percent of the students qualify for a free or reduced price lunch, the program is also beneficial because it will provide free access to college-level instruction, she said. “It is an additional pathway,” Burns Jermain said.
The district will partner with the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance, based in Middletown, for site-based internships, according to Molly Donohue Magee, the alliance executive director.
Among other fields, there is intense need for people who are trained in cybersecurity, Magee said, indicating that this would be one focus for education and workplace training. “The need for cybersecurity workers is not going away,” Donohue Magee said.
The program is based on a similar initiative in Norwalk, Conn., in which students enter high school on a path to either an associate’s degree in computer information systems, or in engineering technology.
The students are matched with mentors at IBM, and on graduation, are guaranteed a job interview. The degree program costs families nothing in Connecticut, and is a partnership with IBM, the state and city schools. It began in the state under then-Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor, who is now the Rhode Island secretary of commerce.

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