USDA Partnering with Community Colleges

Officials from USDA Rural Development recently signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) with rural community colleges to strengthen the rural economy by increasing rural residents' access to skills training and higher education, an outcome of the White House Rural Council to better coordinate federal resources to promote economic prosperity in rural communities.

USDA Rural Development, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the Rural Community College Association (RCCA) will share resources and expertise to increase educational and training opportunities for rural residents. Tonsager said the Obama Administration and USDA continues to recognize the importance of higher education in providing businesses with the highly skilled employees they need to create economic opportunities, and this MOU furthers that effort.

The MOU spells out ways the colleges and USDA will work together to provide training opportunities to rural residents.

The MOU calls for the participants to:

Establish working groups to coordinate Rural Development's financial and technical resources with private sources of assistance to better help rural educational institutions;

Develop outreach and technical assistance models for rural educational institutions;

Co-sponsor events such as conferences, seminars, webinars and other networking events; and,

Hold joint events to identify and remove potential barriers to resources or services.