Area School Districts Receive Grants for Career and Tech Ed Programs

Tuesday, August 30th, 2022 -- 1:01 PM

Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, announced eleven Wisconsin school districts will receive more than $414,000 in grant funding to increase the number of students in career and technical education programs.

Funded through the Wisconsin Fast Forward Program, the grants will help prepare more than 1,400 students for a wide range of high-wage, high-skill, and high-demand careers.

High school students will train in advanced manufacturing fields to prepare for stable careers while they obtain dual enrollment credits, industry-endorsed certificates, and technical endorsements on high school diplomas.

Advanced manufacturing refers to a family of manufacturing activities that depend on the use and coordination of information, automation, computation, software, sensing, and networking, and/or use cutting-edge materials and emerging production capabilities enabled by the physical and biological sciences (e.g., nanotechnology, chemistry, and biology).

This involves both new ways of manufacturing existing products and manufacturing new products emerging from advanced technologies. Some area schools receiving the awards include the Medford Area Public School District in Taylor County for $50,000.

The Medford Area Public School District will use grant funds to purchase a ShopSabre Sidekick 4 Plasma System, an Auto Electronics Trainer, a Grizzly G9933-3HP Three Spindle Shaper, a Grizzly G0490X - 8" x 76" Jointer with Parallelogram Beds and Spiral Cutterhead, and a ShopSabre RC-9 Router System for its technical education program, allowing students to become familiar with cutting-edge technology used in manufacturing, construction, and automotive industries.

The Augusta Area School District in Eau Claire County for $50,000. The Augusta Area School District will use grant funds to purchase additional equipment to for its Industry 4.0 curriculum, including a Hydraulics Trainer, a Skill Boss Manufacturing Trainer with Hand Tooling package, a Creaform Academia 20 Scanner Package, a LJCreate Injection Molding Trainer, and LJCreate Engineering Construction Kits. 

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