U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine Visits Manassas Campus

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) made the Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) at NOVA’s Manassas Campus a stop on his Northern Virginia road trip last Thursday, Aug. 29. He visited the college to celebrate progress made possible by the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act, which provides funds to support the domestic production of semiconductors. NOVA recently won a nearly $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to create the Engineering Technology (ET) Career Scholars Program, an education-aligned pre-apprenticeship designed to expand regional access to Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) in the semiconductor and data center industries.

“The DOL grant came out of the CHIPS bill that I helped pass,” said Kaine. “I wanted to come see how things we pass in the Senate happen in the real world.”

After touring the Fab Lab and speaking with Information and Engineering Technology faculty and staff, Kaine sat down with seven of the 20 students participating in the first ET Career Scholars cohort, President Anne Kress and Vice President for Information and Engineering Technologies and College Computing Chad Knights. The students shared how they learned about the one-year pre-apprenticeship program and why it appealed to them. Almost universally, they cited guidance from high school teachers or counselors, and expressed heartfelt appreciation for the financial support from the grant that enabled them to attend college. All the students said they were impressed with the emphasis on developing soft skills (which Kaine called “success skills”), the opportunities to meet with employers and NOVA graduates who work for them and the prospects for good-paying jobs once they complete the program.

Submitted by:
Sara Collins, Director of Communications & Enrollment Mgt., SCollins@nvcc.edu