GTCC awarded $194,000 grant to expand its Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities training program

JAMESTOWN, N.C. (May 30, 2024) – Guilford Technical Community College has received a $194,000 grant from the North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges to expand its Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) Training Program.

GTCC will use the grant to expand its POWER (Providing Opportunities for Workforce and Education Review) Pathways program to its High Point campus and add an additional career pathway option. Also, GTCC will use this funding to hire an Access to Achievement coordinator, who will help develop more pathways for IDD students, advise incoming IDD students, and strengthen partnerships with local employers.

The POWER Pathways program is offered through GTCC's Workforce and Continuing Education department for adults with IDD to help improve reading, math, computer literacy, and general workplace readiness skills.

“Our initial IDD training program has been extremely successful in empowering new employees and helping employers who had been struggling to find qualified employees,” said GTCC President Anthony Clarke, Ph.D. “Expanding this program is going to be a boost to everyone involved. It’s creating a new workforce stream and that is a win-win for the Triad.”

GTCC currently offers two career options for IDD students in the POWER Pathways program: food service and customer service.

The food service curriculum was launched in the spring of 2019 and combines adult education, human resources development, and occupational education classes.

The food service pathway provides hands-on cooking and food safety experience in a kitchen on campus as well as learning soft skills and academic skills related to food service.

GTCC’s customer service POWER Pathways program is a two-semester program that leads to an industry recognized credential in customer service and sales service. It also provides digital literacy training.