Teacher interest driving growth of Radford University’s IMPACT
RADFORD — Radford University’s online workforce development program is growing rapidly since its inception just over two years ago — mainly because of public school teachers interested in helping their students.
The Innovative Mobile Personalized Accelerated Competency Training program — or IMPACT — has nearly 3,000 participants since it was founded in the fall of 2017. At that time, the cybersecurity element of the three IMPACT elements was the most publicized because of then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s push for schools to meet the state’s growing needs for those type of jobs.
However, over the past two years, about 2,800 IMPACT participants have been involved in the Appalachian Support for Specialized Education Training arm of the program, or ASSET.
IMPACT also includes a geospatial component.
The total program has partnered with 23 businesses, organizations and school systems across multiple states in the Appalachian region so far, to offer self-paced distance learning to those that may not have access to similar programs. Businesses include The Raiffeisen Group, Private Advisors Alternative Asset Management and Citizens, among others.
The ASSET teacher-based program, unlike the other two IMPACT pieces, is funded by a $13.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. That has allowed RU to offer ASSET for free to school systems across multiple states.
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