This week, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced competitive awards to more than 100 community colleges within seven statewide systems or consortia, totaling $65 million. The Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants (SCCTG) program grants will fund community college partnerships with local employers to prepare workers for new high-skill, high-wage jobs.
“Community colleges and their local employer partners are at the forefront of innovation to attract and keep high-skill, family-sustaining jobs in the local community. Congratulations to the more than 100 community colleges on winning this year’s Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants competition,” said Jee Hang Lee, President and CEO of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). “Thank you also to the record-breaking number of both Republicans and Democrats who stood up to support funding for this program in Congress this year.”
Now in its sixth round, SCCTG partners with employers to support workforce training in new high-skill, high-wage jobs. Grantees this year focused on artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, construction and skilled trades, nuclear energy, information technology, and shipbuilding. This year, the competition emphasized improving state education and workforce data systems to help implement new short-term Workforce Pell Grant programs, which must be approved separately.
This year, community college trustees helped break the record for bipartisan support for SCCTG funding in Congress, joining Reps. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) in publicly supporting funding for SCCTG in the spending bill for fiscal year 2027 (FY27). In response, the House Labor-Health and Human Services-Education spending bill provided an increase of $10 million to $75 million for FY27. Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) led an appropriations letter supporting SCCTG funding for FY27.
To preserve SCCTG for the long term, Senators Marshall and Warnock also introduced the Pathways to Prosperity Act to provide multi-year authorization for SCCTG. House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) included long-term authorization for SCCTG in the committee-passed Stronger Workforce for America Act. In the previous Congress, the bipartisan workforce training reauthorization bill that passed the House also included long-term SCCTG reauthorization. Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA) introduced a standalone SCCTG authorization bill with dozens of Democrats.
SCCTG List of Grantees for FY26:
Jonathan Elkin is the Director of Government Relations at ACCT
