WASHINGTON - A consortium of thirty SUNY community colleges will receive $14.6 million to fund worker training and education programs that will help unemployed workers learn skills essential to securing local jobs in emerging industries. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer announced that 26 community colleges, three colleges of technology and a four-year college specializing in on-line education will benefit from this massive grant at his request from the Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants Program (TAACCCT).

The senator is calling his proposal “TEAM”, for “Training and Education in Advanced Manufacturing” project.  It allows schools to craft jobs, a job-specific curriculum for the jobs that are needed. 

“By taking advantage of courses and training at local colleges, our young people and unemployed workers can get jobs across the state, so someone who is unemployed may want to enroll in one of these SUNY classes as well,”, Schumer said.

The senator said the grant could be a huge boost to TAA-eligible workers in the Hudson Valley, where SUNY plans to train an initial 100 workers at 6 institutions serving 57,609 students.

Schumer worked directly with SUNY to develop a strong application and personally lobbied the Dept. of Labor and the Administration to grant this award to New York, which received one of the largest pots of funding nationwide.