The Winona State University (WSU) Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) department has been awarded a $1,500 Workforce Innovator Grant from the Greater Rochester Advocates for Universities and Colleges (GRAUC).

GRAUC Board members awarded  the grant funding to the partnership between WSU ACE department and Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) Business and Workforce Education (BWE) department at their Annual GRAUC Celebration on Friday, June 22nd, 2018.

Based on community input, the partnership will be developing a skills based, individually-paced curriculum to learn programming skills in JavaScript.  Faculty from both WSU and RCTC, along with community advisors, will then develop a hybrid offering, a combination of online as well as face-to-face learning. The hybrid approach will help participants enhance their programming skills with a team-based, project-based learning experience. In addition, students can jump into the self-paced course at given intervals.

“Funding for this project will help us meet the expressed needs of IT business partners in the Rochester area,” said WSU Assistant Vice President Linda Kingston. “ The curriculum being designed for this training will benefit incumbent workers who need to enhance their technical programming skills as well as improve their abilities to apply those skills in a project-based setting.  I can see this model of development and delivery being replicated in a number of curriculum areas in the future.”

The funding will be applied to the summer and fall semesters and will subsidize faculty training and development necessary to create the project-based 7 to 8 week course.

For further information on GRAUC and its Workforce Innovator grant funding, go to www.grauc.org or call GRAUC Executive Director, Don Supalla, at 507-258-8109.

For further information on WSU’s Adult and Continuing Education department, go to https://www.winona.edu/adult-learners/default.asp or call 507-457-5080. For further information on RCTC’s Business and Workforce Education department, go to http://rctcbwe.com/ or call 507-280-3157.

About WSU-Rochester

Winona State University – Rochester has been serving the Rochester community and southeast Minnesota for over 100 years. WSU-Rochester offers Bachelor completion Graduate Certificate academic programing supporting workforce needs and development. WSU-Rochester’s faculty, staff, and students are dedicated to improving the communities they live in and our alumni continue to do great things throughout the United States. For more information about WSU-Rochester, visit: www.winona.edu/Rochester

 

 

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