Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) announced today that Mitchell Technical Institute (MTI) has been awarded a $2,533,052 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. This grant will broaden access to quality training opportunities through its support of MTI’s Technical Education at a Distance (TED) model.

“This award will help MTI develop a model to help meet South Dakota’s growing need for speech-language pathology assistants,” said Johnson. “In addition to helping meet an important need of school districts across our state, the TED model will serve as a useful tool to expand education and training opportunities for people living in rural communities”

The funding is allocated from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program. MTI will use these funds to help build its TED model, which seeks to overcome the challenge of providing hands-on, technical training in rural areas. While this specific project will address the growing demand for speech-language pathology assistants, the TED model will be capable of being replicated to meet other rural training needs. The grant will support education and training for those who are Trade Adjustment Assistance-eligible, unemployed, and underemployed and will focus on serving Veterans, Native Americans, and others living in rural communities.

In addition, South Dakota will receive funding through a consortium TAACCCT grant. Lake Area Technical Institute is a member of the consortia that was awarded the $14,171,229 grant to the Pueblo Community College Consortium. You can find more information at http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ETA20121885.htm. 

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