KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri has received a $20 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to train more than 4,000 underemployed adults in the health services sector.
Governor Jay Nixon led efforts to bring the funds to the state's twelve or so community colleges.
Metropolitan Community College, or MCC, in Kansas City will get about $3 million.
Deborah Goodall is President of MCC's business and technology campus and said the grant, called MoHEALTHWins, will help MCC better train adults in skills needed at area hospitals and companies like Cerner.
"As health care records become digitalized, you need a different type of worker," said Goodall. "You need someone who not only understands medical terminology and the health care side, but you also need someone who understands IT systems."
Goodall said MCC will use the grant to develop news courses in these evolving fields, create training opportunities that better cater to working adults, and provide some 800 Kansas City residents with full-MCC scholarships in nursing and health information technology over the next four years.
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