For the first time ever in Northeast Wisconsin, students who complete a two-year Construction Management Technology degree at Fox Valley Technology (FVTC) now have somewhere local to complete their bachelor's degree. After more than a year of discussions, Concordia University and FVTC signed an agreement for a two plus two program. Students who successfully complete the Construction Management Technology program at FVTC can then apply for the same program at Concordia.

Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College and Lakeland University have announced a transfer partnership. The WITC To Lakeland guaranteed transfer program will allow students to complete an associate degree at WITC and then transfer seamlessly to Lakeland as a college junior. WITC graduates who meet all the requirements are guaranteed direct admission to Lakeland, where they can complete a related bachelor’s degree.

Michael Kopper and Michele Whitfield donated $2.85 million to the Gateway Technical College Foundation to fund scholarships for students in engineering and manufacturing-related programs as well as benefit students in the college’s Promise program. A total of $1.5 million was contributed to establish the Kopper Family Fund while $1.35 million will go to Gateway’s Promise program.

A Gateway Technical College instructor and student are among the 30 Round Two winners of Foxconn’s statewide Smart Cities-Smart Futures contest and advance to the third, and final, round of the competition. Gateway Horticulture instructor Kate Field advanced in the Food category while Gateway student Donald Heckel advanced in the Mobility and Transportation category. Both will receive a $1,500 award and were honored at a Foxconn recognition ceremony and Round 3 kickoff ceremony today hosted by Gateway at its SC Johnson iMET Center in Sturtevant.

Thousands of nursing students throughout Wisconsin will be able to save hundreds of dollars on textbooks and develop skills through the use of virtual reality as a result of a grant awarded to Chippewa Valley Technical College. The U.S. Department of Education awarded the $2.5 million grant to CVTC as the lead institution on an open textbook pilot project in which all 16 Wisconsin technical colleges will take part. CVTC partnered with Gateway, Northeast and Madison Area technical colleges in developing the proposal, with all playing major roles.

Governor Tony Evers has proclaimed February as Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month in Wisconsin to highlight the state’s efforts to develop students for a wide-range of careers, post-secondary education, or both. According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, approximately 70 percent of 11th and 12th graders in Wisconsin participate in CTE courses in fields like agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer sciences, business and information technology, health science, marketing and entrepreneurship, and technology and engineering.

A partnership program between Chippewa Valley Technical College and the Eau Claire school district launching in the fall of 2019 will allow high school students to graduate with an associate degree in business management. The program will allow participating students to actually complete an associate degree that before would have only been obtained from a full two-year program at a postsecondary institution.

Western Technical College received $95,000 from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development to create a Certified Nursing Aid course for high school students, with more than 120 hours of instruction and 42 hours of clinical training. This grant lasts until June of 2020, and Western hopes to train about 80 students until that time.

The university is partnering with Northcentral Technical College, Nicolet College and Mid-State Technical College have partnered with UW-Stevens Point to create the Northcentral Wisconsin 1+2+1 Nursing Program. The program allows students to receive both their associate's and bachelor's degrees in four years through one of the participating technical schools and at UWSP's campuses in Stevens Point, Marshfield and Wausau.