Crowder receives $2.7 million grant to train workers

An announcement last week will provide Crowder College more than $2.7 million to train local workers.

Crowder was one of two Missouri recipients in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Tuesday announcement. There were 323 applications after the March 15 grant announcement, and Crowder’s was one of the 41 to receive funding. The school will use the funds to develop a health care information technology program, add equipment and courses to their advanced manufacturing option and help fund paraprofessional training in Applied Behavioral Analysis – a technique used with autistic children.

Crowder’s award was $2,776,953 out of the $125 million program. It was the school’s second Community-Based Job Training Grant awarded in two years. In 2008, Crowder received $1,426,086 from the same grant program, an award that helped establish the advanced manufacturing program and expanded nursing programs to the Nevada and Cassville campus locations.

Amy Rand, associate dean of program development, said most of the program development would be in Neosho, but that the school will offer what it can online.

“Some of the coursework can be delivered online so we can reach even out of state,” Rand said. “As much as we can offer online for the health care it and the autism we’ll offer online. The advanced manufacturing really can’t be offered online so it’s going to have to start here in Neosho. Because of the expense of the equipment it’s probably not going to be extended – for some time — to our other campuses.”

The primary thrust of this grant is health care. The money will help launch an ABA-centered program that Crowder already had in development, working with the governor’s office and the Ozark Center in Joplin.
Rand said school began developing the program in response to a new Missouri insurance mandate that includes ABA coverage for autistic children. When the legislation passed, experts around the state anticipated a shortage of trained therapists.

“What we’re looking to do is develop a certificate and an associate’s degree for this program,” Rand said. “Then we’ve also begun to work with Missouri Southern State University in Joplin on our students articulating into a bachelor’s degree.

ABA-certified Crowder graduates could work in schools, in-home trainers or at specialized schools like the Ozark Center. The program is almost finished and will be forwarded to the Higher Learning Commission in July, Rand said. The school has been working on it for months.

“Any time you start a new program it’s expensive,” she said. “This will support the start of this particular program and a couple others.”

Another health care program the grant will help fund is the development of the health care information technology program, which will combine patient care and computer documentation, like coding and insurance billing, into a new program. Nursing and business programs are working together to develop a program certified by the American Health Information Management Association.

The advanced manufacturing program already has a certificate and an associate program, but it will expand under the grant. Funds will be available for more programmable controllers to help train students to troubleshoot and fix conveyor belts, hydraulics and electronics. Students get hands-on learning with the simulators during class.

“You’re not actually working on a real machine where you can mess it up,” Rand said. “The instructor can actually set things to go wrong and then they have to troubleshoot and fix the machine or equipment. It is a pretty sophisticated training tool, but very realistic.”

Crowder has received two other grants since the beginning of 2010 – one, a American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant overseen by the Department of Labor – netted the college $3,576,760 this February. The money is being used to develop occupational and physical therapy assistant programs and to expand the certified nursing assistant and addictions counseling program. In March, the school was notified of a $758,112 Training for Tomorrow state grant. That money will be applied to the ABA program and help with expansion to water/wastewater program.

In a statement released by the college Friday, college president Dr. Alan Marble said he was pleased with the confidence the Department of Labor displayed in Crowder with a second award.

“We are very grateful for the funding and we are anxious to move ahead with the training programs that will ultimately lead to solid career opportunities for the residents of our region,” Marble said.