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.