Gateway Technical College has received a federal grant to train and certify 3,000 Certified Nursing Assistants statewide who will be targeted for work at long-term care facilities. The WisCaregiver Career Program will cover the training, textbooks, vaccinations, background checks, scrubs and certification exams for the first 2,000 successful applicants through the Wisconsin Technical College System. Another 1,000 students will receive funding for training and testing through state-approved nursing home nurse aide training programs.

Lakeshore Technical College has received a gift of $25,000 from Kaysun Corporation of Manitowoc to provide scholarship support for LTC students — $15,000 of which will be designated to support the LTC Promising Futures Scholarship Campaign with the remainder going toward the Kaysun Corporation Manufacturing Scholarship.

A $12,000 goal for 2018 has been established for a new scholarship/educational fund to assist currently or formerly incarcerated people of color in the La Crosse community transition from jail to society. The scholarship/educational fund is a partnership between the local chapter of Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) and the Western Foundation at Western Technical College.

The La Crosse manufacturing company Trane is partnering with Western Technical College to bring state-of-the-art heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment and software to students. $20,000 in scholarships from Trane will help students learn on the new machines, while giving them some financial peace of mind.