UPR Mayagüez has $3M in grants for remote short courses
A $3 million grant has been awarded for eligible individuals to take short courses and certifications that will be offered through the distance learning modality at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Mayagüez campus, officials announced.
The Education at a Distance Resources Center (CREAD, in Spanish), ascribed to the Office of Educational Innovation, Education at a Distant and Professional Studies (OIEEDEP, in Spanish) at the UPR’s Mayagüez campus, has signed a collaborative agreement with the Puerto Rico Technoeconomic Corridor (PRTEC), aimed at training eligible workers to develop in-demand skills for the current labor market and be more competitive.
More specifically, the three-year, $3 million grant, has been awarded for eligible individuals to be able to take short courses and certifications. The curriculum follows the local industry’s needs, officials said.
“We are always looking for ways to raise funds for the campus by offering innovative continuing education services, based on the needs of industries and the general population,” OIEEDEP director José Ferrer said.
“We do it in ways that allow for the participation of the largest number of people within our capacities. The intention is to continue to grow and expand our reach to serve the best interests of the people of Puerto Rico, of all our participants and our campus. The personnel and work carried out by CREAD is an essential part of this task,” he said.
Since its foundation, CREAD, in collaboration with the Continuing Education and Professional Studies Division (DECEP, in Spanish), have managed to increase the amount of continuing education available offer at the UPR Mayagüez campus to reach the “entire population.”
“Since the beginning of the transformation at DECEP in 2012 and with the arrival of CREAD in 2016, both offices have been the engine for the transformation and growth at the UPR’s Mayagüez campus [hence] contributing to its finances…,” Ferrer said.
The center already has extensive experience in this type of training, having collaborated with PRTEC in the past thanks to a $7 million “Ready to Work” grant.
“… Through this agreement, we will be able to place our grain of salt to train and develop new labor market in-demand skills to hundreds of eligible workers in order to become more competitive,” CREAD administrator Yaritza Ortiz said.
“At the Education at a Distance Resources Center we continue to be committed on developing a unique offer on the island, since it not only focuses on placing content on a learning management platform, but we include the most important part, which is to ensure that the student and the worker have a successful educational experience,” she added.
For his part, PRTEC executive president Nelson Perea expressed confidence on the new agreement and noted that it will be a successful one, as it will allow for the offering of tools to improve labor skills.
“The UPR Mayagüez campus has always been our first choice as allies in these [kind of] efforts,” Perea said. “We are always looking for ways to help the economic development at the island’s western region. Both the DECEP and CREAD staff have been, in previous projects, important pieces of the success of these initiatives.”
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