The California Community College Chancellor’s Office has awarded College of the Canyons a pair of grants valued at nearly $357,000, which will allow the college to develop its plumbing certificate program and establish a new nurse training partnership with Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital.

Coming in the form of an Industry Driven Regional Collaborative (IDRC) grant, the first award will provide nearly $117,000 to help develop curriculum and build a state-of-the-art plumbing technology lab that meets industry standards for students who enroll in the college’s planned 25-unit plumbing certificate program.

“This program will help train students so they can become qualified plumbing technicians,” said Kristin Houser, Dean of Career Technology Education at the college.

“Our plumbing advisory board, comprised of owners of local plumbing companies and supply houses, is very excited about the potential for this program to provide an applicant pool of entry level technicians who possess the skills to work throughout the industry.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment for plumbers will grow about 26 percent in the next eight years, which is faster than the average for all other occupations.

In addition, the college’s nursing program has received a Responsive Training Fund grant valued at nearly $240,000 that will allow licensed vocational nurses (LVN) at HMNMH to make the transition to become registered nurses (RN).

The collaboration will help prevent the dismissal of more than 30 LVNs currently working at the hospital, maintain the facility’s required RN to patient ratio and provide space in the college’s crowded nursing program.

“This is an exciting and wonderful project,” said Cynthia Dorroh, Dean of Allied Health and Public Safety. “With changes in regulations most hospitals have laid off all of their LVNs. Henry Mayo chose to collaborate with us and make the commitment to help them gain the additional education needed to become RNs.”

As part of the LVN to RN program participating nurses will receive hands-on instruction at the HMNMH facilities beginning this fall, with the program’s groups and activities expected to run through December 2013. All participants completing the program will be eligible for licensure as registered nurses.

“Thanks to this grant, these hardworking nurses won’t lose their jobs but will instead have the opportunity to receive the training they need to help advance their careers,” said Theresa Zuzevich, director of grants development at the college. “It’s our hope that by the end of the program Henry Mayo will be able to add 33 registered nurses to its staff.”

For more information about the College of the Canyons nursing program please visit www.canyons.edu/departments/ns/. For more information about the college’s plumbing program please call Kristin Houser at (661) 362-3408.