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Passaic County Technical Institute expansion, new biotech wing takes critical step forward (NJ.com)

October 1, 2021

Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools add new career majors

A screenshot of the Passaic County Commissioners’ virtual meeting on Jan. 26, 2021 shows the proposed shared edition to the community college and high school. David M Zimmer/NorthJersey.com

Read this article as it originally appeared on NJ.com.

A $24.7 million project to upgrade Passaic County Technical Institute’s career-readiness chops has taken a critical step forward.

Passaic County officials introduced a bond ordinance Tuesday to fund a proposed 65,000-square-foot expansion on the Wayne campus.

The new academic wing would connect the technical institute with the adjacent Passaic County Community College and include laboratory space designed to focused on biotechnical instruction, county and school district officials said. It would also allow high school students in a new life sciences program to graduate with an associate’s degree, they said.

Funding

The project would initially be funded through a $24.7 million bond that would be offset by an $18.6 million grant from the state Department of Education’s County Vocational School District Career and Technical Education Grant Program, secured in July.

The project was one of 17 approved for grant funding in July. In total, nearly $223 million was pledged to improvements at county vocational school districts. Other awards went to the Bergen County Technical High School in Paramus ($25.9 million), the Morris County Vocational School in Denville ($18.6 million) and Sussex County Technical School in Sparta ($4.8 million).

Earlier in September, Gov. Phil Murphy announced the pending release of another $52.1 million for county vocational and technical high schools through the grant program. Both rounds stem from the $500 million Securing Our Children’s Future Bond Act. Approved by state voters in 2018, the act dedicated funds for renovation and new construction projects and their corresponding site work, furniture and equipment.

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Morris County Vocational District Partners with CCM on Career Center (TAPintoDenville)

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The Denville-based Morris County Vocational School District (MCVSD) and the County College of Morris (CCM) held a groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 27 for a new Career Training Center. The joint endeavor will open doors and improve lives by enabling Morris County students to pursue in-demand educational and career pathways while earning high school and college credits simultaneously, said the schools.

Ruhle: On tying education to workforce development — and respecting teachers (ROI-NJ)

Ruhle: On tying education to workforce development — and respecting teachers (ROI-NJ)

Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC recently spoke at the seventh annual Middlesex County Business Summit at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, where she emphasized the importance of vocational-technical programs. “Workforce development is the most important thing if you care about social change, care about economic development, care about how people can rise up from the bottom — that starts with getting into the foundation of a great education,” she said.

Manufacturing groups try new approaches to solve employee shortage (NJBIZ)

Manufacturing groups try new approaches to solve employee shortage (NJBIZ)

There has been a “strong resurgence of career and technical education programs in manufacturing,” according to Jackie Burke, executive director of the New Jersey Council of County Vocational-Technical Schools. The organization and its 21 member districts “are helping to build a pipeline of next-generation manufacturing employees by both spreading awareness about the field, including what it is and the growing career opportunities in it, as well as expanding training programs to help students prepare for these opportunities,” Burke added.