SWFT at Parkland College Continues to Thrive, Thanks to WEI Grant

Parkland College was one of 15 community colleges selected to take part in the WEI five years ago.

Parkland College's Support for Workforce Training program, now in its fifth year, continues to thrive thanks the annual $1.2 million Illinois Workforce Equity Initiative grant that supports it.

Parkland's Senior Director of Workforce Development Alicia Beck recently reported that for FY2024, the SWFT program provided scholarships to 160 Parkland College students. Nearly 80% of scholarship recipients have completed their SWFT-funded programs by October 30 of this year, with other students planning to complete by the end of the Fall 2024 semester. Seventy-seven percent of participants were Black/ African American, exceeding the WEI grant's requirement of 60 percent annually.

Beck added that 69 percent of the SWFT program's completers have found employment by October 30, at an average wage of $24.43 per hour.

SWFT, a supportive scholarship program for selected short-term certifications at Parkland College, provides real-world education for students in a variety of professions, including Healthcare, Transportation and Distribution, and Construction and Manufacturing. 

Parkland College was one of 15 community colleges selected to take part in the $18.5 million WEI five years ago. Backed by its $1.2 million WEI grant, SWFT has worked to help more than 150 district residents move into high-demand careers with family-sustaining wages within a year or less annually. The WEI grant seeks to address historic underrepresentation of African Americans in high-demand, high-wage careers, thus requiring African Americans to comprise 60 percent of the population served by programs funded through the grant.