CompTIA to Educators: 'Show Me the Money!' Is More Than a Movie Slogan
Who doesn’t remember the famous blare of braggadocio from Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire? (Here’s a YouTube link should you wish to refresh your memory.) The idea is that an offer is one thing, but real, tangible payment is something else entirely.
And indeed, what works in the movies also sometimes works in real life — especially as the clock winds down on stimulus funds from the COVID pandemic. It's time to take advantage of those bucks in great, creative ways before they’re gone forever. If anything explains the impetus behind the CompTIA "Show Me the Money" webinar series, that's it in a tongue-in-cheek nutshell.
A Series Always Begins with a First Installment
CompTIA’s ongoing webinar series is titled "Show Me the Money." It kicks off on June 22 with an offering titled "The Clock is Ticking: Tap into Unused Stimulus Dollars." That webinar will explain how various academic institutions — including community and junior colleges, undergraduate and graduate universities, and so forth — can obtain funding.
Namely, the funding available was initially earmarked for career training programs. Now academic institutions can suck up unspent federal dollars intended to reduce the pandemic’s impact on education, from elementary to post-secondary institutions.
What’s on deck for that well-timed extravaganza? Glad you asked. Here’s the line-up:
Matt Gandal, CEO of the Education Strategy Group, runs a firm that works with civic, education and business leaders to improve economic opportunities and mobility through boosting educational attainment.
Dr. Rebecca Kaye, senior advisor to Guilford County Schools (the third-largest North Carolina school district), chairs her district’s Dual Generation Workforce Initiative, a program that offers parents and guardians ways to skill up for high-skill (and better paying) careers.
Robert Owens, CompTIA’s Director of Market Development Training Solutions, will chair this webinar effort.
The speakers will talk about federal stimulus dollars available to academic institutions, including the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) and the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). Visit the link provided at the head of this section to register for this June 22 event.
Stay Tuned for Some Thrilling Sequels
Future offerings are still in development. They will focus on how academic institutions and school systems can use matching government money to extend and improve on their educational outreach and career development offerings, especially for underserved communities, workforce training initiatives, and more.
Special emphasis will go into explaining and exploring current and future workforce training programs sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce, with funding sources for matching purposes. This is all part of CompTIA’s ongoing Workforce Solutions Group efforts. This group seeks to engage with academia, training providers, employers, government workforce commissions, and agencies at all levels of government — local, state and federal — to create, boost and promote workforce development.
As more information about future such offerings becomes available, I’ll share it with you. Stay tuned!
Ed Tittel is a 30-plus-year computer industry veteran who's worked as a software developer, technical marketer, consultant, author, and researcher. Author of many books and articles, Ed also writes on certification topics for Tech Target, ComputerWorld and Win10.Guru. Check out his website at www.edtittel.com, where he also blogs daily on Windows 10 and 11 topics.
