WCC to use grant to enhance career readiness

WCC to use grant to enhance career readiness

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has awarded the Waynesville Career Center a $400,000 grant. The grant requires a 25% match from the Waynesville R-VI School District.

The Waynesville Career Center will budget to use the funds beginning in the 2023-24 school year to enhance career readiness through the purchase of the following items:

-       forklift that will enable students to get certification as a forklift operator

-       plasma table, which is used in the metal cutting processes in manufacturing, agriculture, engineering and construction

-       welding robot to prepare students for working in manufacturing technology

-       virtual reality computer equipment

-       3-D printers

-       Car kit so that students can assemble and build a vehicle from the ground up and take it apart and rebuild it in future years

-       Serving line for culinary arts

-       Medicine distribution cart

-       Cargo trailer

-       Storage container

-       Construction of a small storage unit

“This grant will provide opportunities for our students to have an education that is a notch above others,” said WCC Director Sam Callis. “It’s the little things, like providing fork lift certification, that will set our students apart when they enter the workforce.”

The WCC is among several Missouri Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs to be awarded grant dollars to further support the important work that these programs do to ensure all Missouri students are prepared for success upon graduation and further contribute to developing Missouri’s workforce, according to DESE’s news release on Nov. 29, 2022.

Missouri’s Area Career Center Opportunity (MACCO) Grant provides funding to enhance the state’s CTE capacity by providing more opportunities for CTE students while updating and modernizing career centers’ infrastructure and equipment.

Issued Dec. 20, 2022