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State board announces Workforce Education Innovation Fund grants to expand healthcare, cyber and CTE programs
Summary
The North Dakota University System received $10 million appropriated by the Legislature for the Workforce Education Innovation Fund. A review committee awarded grants to NDUS campuses for curriculum development, equipment, instructor hiring, and partnerships in health care, cybersecurity, AI, and CTE.
A review committee convened by the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education awarded grants from a $10 million state appropriation to institutions across the North Dakota University System to support workforce-focused education, the board told the Higher Education Institutions Committee.
The Workforce Education Innovation Fund, created by the Legislature in 2023 and appropriated $10,000,000 in the 2025 biennium, provides one-time grants to help campuses stand up or expand programs that prepare skilled workers. The committee that reviewed applications included system board members, state agency representatives (Job Service, Department of Commerce, Department of Career and Technical Education), and industry and higher-education stakeholders.
Awarded uses listed by the system office included curriculum development, equipment and facility modifications, instructor hiring and training, program promotion, and partnership enhancements. Committee members said funded proposals covered health care, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, engineering and construction management, fire science, and aviation, among other areas.
The system escribed the award evaluation criteria as including efficiency, partnership potential, uniqueness, agility and sustainability; members also committed to follow-up reporting and a year-ahead review of outcomes. "We will continue to look at these on a quarterly basis," one review panel member said to the committee.
The funds are one-time appropriations; campuses acknowledged a need to demonstrate program sustainability after initial funding, and the system said projects that show sustained credit production could be supported later through the state funding formula.
Ending: The committee asked the system office to return with program outcome updates and details on how one-time awards will be sustained or transitioned into recurring funding.
