A ‘Transformational’ Investment in Maine Workforce Training

The Maine Community College System is set to receive a $75.5 million influx over five years from a local foundation to invest in its short-term workforce training programs.

The grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation, which supports efforts related to Maine education, community development and health care, is the largest grant in the system’s history, according to an announcement earlier this summer. With the new funding, the system aims to train at least 70,000 workers in the state in industries ranging from allied health fields to welding and logging.

System leaders say the surge of funding comes at a time when employers face significant workforce gaps as aging workers retire and the state confronts a decline in young residents. Maine has the oldest population in the country, with a median age of about 45, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“This is truly a transformational investment that will directly benefit Mainers and Maine businesses across the state,” David Daigler, president of the Maine Community College System, said in a press release. “Maine faces persistent workforce shortages across all industries and age groups, and employers are desperate for skilled workers, fast.”

‘The Next Level’

This is the third grant the foundation has given the system to bolster its workforce development. It doled out $3.8 million in 2018 and another $15.5 million in 2021. The second grant was paired with $35.5 million in one-time pandemic relief funds from the state, through the Maine Jobs Recovery Plan, to rapidly expand the seven-college system’s infrastructure for workforce training programs.

The goal was to train 24,000 people over four years, but in less than three years, the system surpassed that threshold, training at least 26,000, said Dan Belyea, the system’s chief workforce development officer. That’s partly because the number of employers who wanted to partner with the colleges to train and upskill their incumbent workers “just exploded,” he said. System leaders hoped to have about 500 employers enter into a compact with the colleges for training by the end of the grant period; the compact now includes about 1,700 employers.

That growth motivated system leaders to think bigger and ask the foundation for more funding.

“We said, ‘Hey, why don’t we go to the next level?’” Belyea said.

The new funding comes at a time when the COVID-19 relief funds that helped ramp up such programs are drying up. The system will now be able to sustain the efforts and continue their growth. The grant will also allow the system to undertake a gap analysis, an assessment of state workforce shortages in the industries their programs serve.

“We know that there’s a whole bunch of folks who don’t have the right skills for the jobs that are here,” said Belyea, including some “living paycheck to paycheck” who are looking for better-paying, more stable careers. “We’re providing a bridge or entry point to not only those learners but to the employers who desperately need them. It’s a cool marriage.”

Potential Impact

The colleges offer a wide range of short-term training programs of varying lengths—some as short as a week—and at low or no cost. They’re designed to support both prospective employees and those already in the workforce and looking to enhance their skills.

Northern Maine Community College, for example, offers a 20-week mechanized logging operations program, free to students, in partnership with the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, a regional trade organization. Southern Maine Community College offers a free, three-week welding program that pays students $500 per week, through a partnership with a local shipyard, General Dynamics Bath Iron Works; graduates are also guaranteed an interview at the company. And a nine-month medical assistant program at Southern Maine also offers part-time, paid, hands-on experience with local medical employers.

“These programs are critical to building Maine’s skilled workforce, and we’ve seen outstanding results at Maine’s community colleges in recent years,” Greg Powell, chairman of the Harold Alfond Foundation, said in the release announcing the grant. “We’re proud our grant making will lead to so many people getting the relevant, responsive job skills so needed by our economy.”

Belyea also believes the programs can serve as an on-ramp to further higher education for some students who initially didn’t think college was for them. He sees these programs as providing not only a speedy path to a career but also exposure to a college setting.

Logging students, for example, often tell college staff, “‘We don’t do well in classrooms. We don’t do well with book learning,’” Belyea said. “But the fact of the matter is they’re out there, they are doing book learning, they are in a classroom—just the whiteboard is nailed on a tree.”

Shalin Jyotishi, senior adviser for education, labor and the future of work at New America, a public policy think tank, said the philanthropic investment of tens of millions of dollars toward workforce training will be “transformative” for the system—and also a rare windfall for community colleges.

He noted that writer and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott made some substantial gifts to community colleges in recent years, but in general, these institutions don’t bring in major philanthropic dollars. And the donations from local philanthropists that do roll in more often go to scholarships for degree programs. While state lawmakers and employers have increasingly made investments in microcredential programs at these institutions, donors haven’t.

Jyotishi believes other community college systems could follow Maine’s lead and reach out to local donors who might be “very interested in supporting education attainment and economic mobility” but “may not think of their community colleges as a prime beneficiary and partner for that mission,” or see short-term programs as a critical tool.

“Local philanthropy is sometimes one of those untapped or maybe underestimated funding pools for institutions,” he said. He views the grant as “a story of hope and inspiration to college presidents and development leaders on the potential of local philanthropy to support workforce development.”