BOURNE — Superintendent Kerri Anne Quinlan-Zhou and Curriculum Director Kelly Cook are pleased to announce that Bourne Public Schools has been awarded a $75,000 Skills Capital grant from the Baker-Polito Administration.
The funding will allow the school to purchase an ambulance simulator, medical beds and medical equipment. The space will also be offered to community partners to support certification programs such as EMT training, CNA training, and First Aid/CPR certifications.
The Skills Capital Grants are awarded by Governor Baker’s Workforce Skills Cabinet, which was created in 2015 to align education, economic development and workforce policies in order to strategize around how to meet employers’ demand for skilled workers in every region of the Commonwealth.
The grant, which was applied for by Bourne High School Schools-to-Career Coordinator Ann-Marie Strode and Lead Guidance Counselor Kimberly Iannucci, will help prepare students for a variety of medical and healthcare fields through first aid certification courses and other related classes.
“Having this equipment will open a lot of doors for our students and give us the opportunity to expand our course offerings to give students real hands-on training experiences in a meaningful way,” Strode said.
An ambulance simulator will be major component in BPS’ effort to implement a Healthcare Pathway at Bourne High, which is part of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) Innovation Pathways initiative. Innovation Pathways are designed to give students coursework and experience in specific high-demand industries, and the school has already applied for an Environmental and Life Sciences Pathway and a Business and Finance Pathway for the 2022-2023 school year. These ‘real-world’ pathways allow great flexibility for students who want hands-on experiences and high-level coursework that will prepare them well for both college and career.
The Healthcare Pathway would be the third such pathway at BHS, and give students access to real-world hands-on training to prepare them for careers in medicine, nursing, emergency medical services and more.
Strode runs the school’s Career Readiness course, and collects data on which courses students show an interest in. Healthcare has repeatedly been one of the most desired areas of study for students as they look toward their future beyond BHS.
“There has never been a more important time to enter the healthcare field, and we are excited to continue to provide high quality education to students through the use of this ambulance simulator,” Director Cook said. “So much of what we stress here in Bourne is preparing students for their lives after they graduate and enter the world, no matter what that might look like, and these pathways do just that. Being able to launch a Healthcare Pathway would be a tremendous asset for our high school and we thank the Baker-Polito Administration for this latest grant that will bring up one step closer to making it a reality.”
About the Skills Capital Grants
Since 2015, 407 grants totaling more than $105.5 million have been awarded to 207 different schools and educational institutions across the Commonwealth through the Skills Capital Grant program.
In the most recent round of funding, awards totaling $3.3 million were given to 20 educational organizations across the Commonwealth to update equipment and expand student enrollment in programs that provide career education. To date over $105.5 million in total funding has been provided to high schools, colleges, and other educational organizations since the program’s inception in 2015.
About two-thirds of the investments made with the grants are directly aligned to reduce skills gaps in high priority industry sectors, including health care, manufacturing, IT, and skilled trades. A percentage of the funding, about 5 percent, has been invested in multi-year strategic projects in manufacturing, healthcare and energy training programs which are projected to have significant regional impact.
To learn more about the Massachusetts Skills Capital Grant Program, click here.
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