DURHAM -- Durham Technical Community College is one of five community colleges in the nation to share a $200,000 "scale-up" grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its "Breaking Through" initiative.
The national Breaking Through initiative is designed to support the educational and workforce advancement of under-served and under-skilled young adult students by helping them prepare for occupational and technical degree programs. The project is a partnership of Jobs for the Future and the National Council for Workforce Education.
The five community colleges selected for the "scale-up" grants -- $40,000 to each college -- demonstrated that their Breaking Through strategies improved academic outcomes for students, according to Jobs for the Future officials. The award reflects each college's success in designing a sustainable model for the Breaking Though initiative on their campuses.
"All Americans deserve a chance to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to compete for jobs that can provide family-supporting wages," said Marlene Seltzer, president and CEO of Jobs for the Future. "Colleges that scale up strategies like Breaking Through will accelerate President Barack Obama's goal of graduating 5 million more Americans from community colleges by 2020. The grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation help expand the pathways for low-skilled young adults to attain college credentials that will pay off in today's labor market as well as over the long term."
Durham Tech serves more than 5,000 students, including a large number of non-traditional students. Approximately 72 percent attend part time. Approximately 61 percent are over age 25. Durham Tech will use its Scale Up grant, to leverage its incentive program -- using cash or certificates -- to increase student retention and advancement.
Breaking Through began as a research initiative in 2004 by identifying barriers that account for the lack of success among low-skilled adult students. To build on those research findings, Breaking Through entered a three-year national demonstration phase in 2005 that enabled community colleges to implement pathways to college-level professional/technical programs for low-skilled adults. In 2009, Breaking Through entered a new phase that combines documenting best practices at participating community colleges, documenting evidence that those practices make a difference in the lives of students, and scaling up the work in several sites. It is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Other colleges receiving the Breaking Through grants include Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor, Mich., Owensboro Community and Technical College in Owensboro, Ky., Pamlico Community College in Grantsboro, and Tacoma Community College in Tacoma, Wash.
