Alfond Grant-funded certificate training program looks to expand offerings

Courtesy / Maine Community College System Students in Eastern Maine Community College's medical assistant program practice taking vital signs. The one-year program is free to students, part of a short-term training curriculum funded in part by a grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation.

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By Maureen Milliken

One year after a $3.6 million grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation helped the Maine Community College System form a cost-free training workforce training program, it's looking to add trainers in order to expand.

The program, funded by a grant to the Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges, offered 11 programs this year — five workforce training courses in medical assisting, welding and computer support — and six "train the trainer" courses.

The aim is to get students certified to quickly enter high-paying jobs, as well as "train the trainers" so it can add in-demand programs. It focuses on key Maine industries that have indicated a need for trained workers, including health care, information technology, construction, manufacturing and the trades.

Students are trained for free, with tuition and equipment covered, and graduates from the courses are prepared to earn an industry-recognized credential, such as CMA certification for medical assisting and CompTIA and Microsoft certifications for computer support. Classes can last for weeks or months, depending on the subject matter — computer support takes 10 weeks, medical assisting is a year-long course.

Programs and enrollment for the first year of the program are:

Medical Assisting at Eastern Maine Community College, Bangor, 40 enrolled;
Medical Assisting at Southern Maine Community College, South Portland, 16 enrolled;
Welding at Kennebec Valley Community College, Fairfield, 42 enrolled;
Welding at Southern Maine Community College, 12 enrolled;
Computer Support at Central Maine Community College, Auburn, 48 enrolled.

The courses were popular from the start — 235 people applied for the 40 slots for medical assisting at EMCC; 114 people applied for the computer support program at CMCC, according to the community college system.

Training the trainers

The six "train the trainer" programs this year were in welding, phlebotomy and precision manufacturing. The community college system hasn't been able to offer training in some areas because of a lack of qualified instructors, but the Alfond-funded program allows the system to build a roster.

Trainees generally are people who are professionals in the field, but need extra training to become instructors.

Training programs during the 2020-21 school year are planned for phlebotomy, industrial electrical repair, facility maintenance technician, software developer and heavy equipment operator. The system have more information about when and where courses will be offered in the spring, at a webpage on the Alfond Grant training program.

The Alfond Grant was announced in December 2018 and was in addition to a $420,000 Keybank grant in May also supported the program. The Alfond funding covers three years of programs, with more expected to be added as trainers become available.

The short-term training program is one of the community college system’s recent new initiatives, many in partnership with businesses that are having trouble finding workers.

The collaborations not only address industry staffing needs, but offer students pathways to both credit and non-credit training that allows them to work for higher wages, train for jobs and, in many cases, take steps toward gaining a degree or certification.