For Immediate Release

Friday, Aug. 30, 2019

Contact: Kelsey Bode
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: kelsey@jgpr.net

Greater Lowell Tech Receives $381,000 Grant to Support Health Services Programs

TYNGSBOROUGH — Superintendent Joseph Mastrocola is pleased to share that the Massachusetts Workforce Skills Cabinet (WSC) awarded a $381,000 Skills Capital grant to Greater Lowell Tech yesterday.

The grant was presented to school officials including Superintendent Mastrocola at a ceremony at Worcester Technical High School on Thursday. Skills Capital grants are awarded to organizations that offer and are looking to expand skills training opportunities that are in high demand in the Commonwealth. 

As a result of the grant, administrators hope to nearly double the number of senior students graduating from several Allied Health Services Programs at Greater Lowell Tech over the next three years, and increase the school’s number of adult graduates of Health Services Programs by 25 percent.

“This grant will allow us to expand and modernize our patient care training stations to allow for increased enrollment as well as the inclusion of simulation centers with a range of easily accessible learning opportunities,” Superintendent Mastrocola said. “We will upgrade several learning spaces with furniture and instructional equipment that will allow for better collaboration, the use of technology found in health care settings and advanced skill training for students.”

Health Services Programs at Greater Lowell Tech include its Medical Assisting, Nursing Assisting, Pharmacy Technician Certification and the Post-Secondary Nurse Program.

Funding from the Skills Capital Grant will also allow Greater Lowell Tech to launch an EMT Program during the 2020-2021 school year. The purchase of a fully functioning ambulance will allow the school to begin offering emergency medical training.

Grant funding will also allow the school to double its Patient Care Training Stations from eight to 16, and Patient Care Monitoring systems will be put at all patient bedsides. Greater Lowell Tech will additionally purchase three simulation mannequins equipped to simulate a variety of clinical situations, as well as medical record software and mobile patient documentation and medication administration carts.

Two new STEM classrooms will also be outfitted for the Medical Assistant Program as a result of the grant funding, which will allow instructors to transition quickly and seamlessly from laboratory to classroom work.

The school is also in the process of moving individual health services classes and programs to a Health Services wing, which will house all Health Services programs. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of summer 2020, and necessary renovations are being funded by the school’s operating budget through its ongoing maintenance plans.

Greater Lowell Tech is also in the process of expanding its partnership with CVS to allow more Medical Assistant students to access new Pharmacy Technician training opportunities, and the school’s also has a new partnership with Trinity Ambulance. Greater Lowell Tech is also working to develop additional community partnerships, in addition to its existing partnerships with Wingate at Belvidere and the D’Youville Senior Living Community.

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