{"id":39862,"date":"2015-10-28T07:47:35","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T17:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=39862"},"modified":"2021-06-29T10:53:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T20:53:19","slug":"4-6-million-usa-funds-grant-propels-uh-workforce-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2015\/10\/28\/4-6-million-usa-funds-grant-propels-uh-workforce-development\/","title":{"rendered":"$4.6 million USA Funds grant propels <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> workforce development"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UHyDFqCZR4w\" title=\"Youtube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usafunds.org\/Pages\/default.aspx\">USA Funds<\/a> has awarded a $4.6 million grant to the <a href=\"http:\/\/hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/a> to help build <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8217;s innovation economy workforce and stem the state&#8217;s &ldquo;brain drain.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;<span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8217;s centralized K&#8211;12 and higher education systems, which already work together closely, provide us with a unique opportunity to model for the nation how to use complex data and collaborate with business and government to understand and meet current and emerging workforce needs for an entire state,&rdquo; said <abbr>UH<\/abbr> President <strong>David Lassner<\/strong>. &ldquo;This will prepare our students so that they have the skills and expertise our state needs in high-wage and high-demand <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> fields. We are most grateful to USA Funds for its innovative vision and very generous investment in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8217;s students and our workforce.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The USA Funds grant will advance two key University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> initiatives&#8212;the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/innovation\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Innovation Initiative<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/hawaiigradinitiative\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Graduation Initiative<\/a>. It will enable the State of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> to create a model for understanding current and future workforce needs through partnerships among the public and private sectors including the Departments of Labor and Business\/Economic Development\/Tourism, the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Department of Education, the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This transformative initiative will build <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8217;s innovation economy and workforce, ensuring <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> is able to create and attract the jobs of the future and fill these jobs with in-state talent,&rdquo; said <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usafunds.org\/Pages\/BillHansen.aspx\">William D. Hansen<\/a>, USA Funds president and <abbr title=\"Chief Executive Officer\">CEO<\/abbr>. &ldquo;USA Funds is delighted to extend our five-decades-long partnership with <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> by working with the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> in collaboration with the business community to ensure that the state has thousands of additional employees equipped with science, technology, math and engineering skills. Consistent with USA Funds focus on student Completion With a Purpose, this partnership will link student success in higher education to rewarding and fulfilling careers following graduation, while enhancing the state&#8217;s overall economic vitality.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_39861\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39861\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/system-usa-funds-grant.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"376\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39861\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/system-usa-funds-grant.png 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/system-usa-funds-grant-260x158.png 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39861\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Community College students designing, fabricating and testing the Project Imua Payload that flew into space in 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The grant will support the creation of a <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> Center of Excellence at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. This center will serve as a resource to coordinate <abbr>STEM<\/abbr>-related activities across the state. Efforts will include an Innovation Workforce Program that will provide rapid response training to meet immediate workforce needs. The center will also build and strengthen <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> Education Pathways from K&#8211;12 into community colleges and 4-year universities and provide students with the information and education they need for career success. <\/p>\n<p>The USA Funds award will help <abbr>UH<\/abbr> and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> meet workforce needs by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Implementing statewide industry, government and higher education collaboration to determine current and future workforce needs in the innovation and science, technology, engineering and math sectors. <\/li>\n<li>Creating clear, continuous academic pathways in <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> education from middle school through university. <\/li>\n<li>Enhancing <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8217;s student information systems to inform students and advisors of the most efficient <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> pathways to support timely completion and improve student outcomes. <\/li>\n<li>Creating best practices in statewide workforce data collection and utilization, integrated with P&#8211;20 education data, to drive decision-making, measure outcomes and inform policy decisions for <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8217;s educational leadership and stakeholders. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&ldquo;Our goal is to grow the <abbr>STEM<\/abbr> sector in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and help alleviate the &lsquo;brain-drain&rsquo;,&rdquo; said <strong>Scott Murakami<\/strong>, the director of workforce development for the seven <a href=\"http:\/\/uhcc.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Community Colleges<\/a>. &ldquo;We are very grateful to USA Funds for providing resources to help us further our efforts to develop an industry responsive workforce and grow an innovation economy that benefits the entire state.&rdquo;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The USA Funds grant will help the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> to build <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>&#8217;s innovation economy workforce and stem the state&#8217;s &ldquo;brain drain.&rdquo; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12],"tags":[340,332,313,914,71,319,947,56,603],"class_list":["post-39862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","category-video","tag-hawaii-graduation-initiative","tag-hawaii-innovation-initiative","tag-stem","tag-technology","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-foundation","tag-uh-system","tag-video-2","tag-workforce-development","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39862"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144411,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39862\/revisions\/144411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}