Free short-term workforce training for up to 6,700 Mainers

File Photo / Renee Cordes Southern Maine Community College is Maine's largest and oldest community college. Founded in 1946, SMCC offers courses at its South Portland and Brunswick campuses, at community satellite locations and online.

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By Alexis Wells

Maine's community colleges will use an $8.3 million grant to offer free short-term workforce training in areas from hospitality to health care to 6,700 people over the next year.

Funding comes from the Harold Alfond Center for the Advancement of Maine's Workforce, a unit of the Maine Community College System that manages short-term workforce programming.

“This is the largest investment in on-campus short-term workforce programming in the system’s history,” said Dan Belyea, the system's chief workforce development officer. “This is workforce training at the scale and speed Maine needs.”

Around 220 programs will be offered over the next year, including construction, health care, IT, manufacturing, electrical, plumbing, welding and hospitality. Students can also earn Google career certificates and be trained to be medical or dental assistants, truck drivers, welders, early childhood education workers, fiber optic technicians and more.

The programs will run from three to eight weeks, with a couple extending up to a year. Some programs will also include temporary housing, weekly stipends and guaranteed interviews with industry hiring managers.

“We’re opening doors for thousands of Mainers to earn the skills and credentials that lead directly to employment — without the financial barrier of tuition,” Belyea said.

In the past three years, the Alfond Center has provided training to 31,000 people in Maine via programs developed in partnership with employers, trade groups and others to meet the needs for skilled workers.

Last month, state lawmakers declined to continue funding for the Free College Scholarship at Maine's community colleges. The Free College Scholarship, launched in 2022, covered all tuition and mandatory fees for students who graduated from high school or passed an equivalency exam between 2020 and 2025.

The Maine Community College System is Maine's comprehensive two-year college system with a total enrollment of 21,385 students at seven institutions led by Southern Maine Community College. SMCC also ranks fourth largest among all Maine colleges and universities in the 2025 Mainebiz Book of Lists, based on full-time undergraduate enrollment of 2,843 in fall 2024.