Growing South Dakota’s Workforce One Full-Ride at a Time

Letter to the Editor

By Michael Cartney, President of Lake Area Technical College

South Dakota is in full pursuit of assembling and retaining a skilled workforce. The most valuable commodity to companies is the individual with a strong work ethic who wants to be trained in these high-demand areas. Combine the two and you get a workforce that is committed to living and working in South Dakota, employed in their field of study, and growing our communities and our economy. One of the most visionary approaches to building this workforce is a full-ride Build Dakota Scholarship (BDS) to any technical College in SD.

The core BDS are funded by philanthropist T. Denny Sanford and a commitment from the SD Future Funds to match the $25 million Sanford donated. Businesses have also stepped forward and have committed another $1M. The SD technical Colleges are doing their part by providing quality, career-focused education and are honored to play such a significant role in growing the workforce one full-ride scholarship at a time. To date, 600 BDS have been awarded to students entering identified high-need programs. That’s exciting news for SD, but equally exciting for students interested in pursuing technical training in a qualified program. A free, full-ride scholarship that supports tuition, fees, books, tools and other program expenses is just the beginning! Graduates will have a career waiting for them and employers will have the ability to grow their workforce with the best in the region.

To apply for the BDS go to www.lakeareatech.edu. The application deadline is March 15, 2017 for the fall semester. Both in-state students and out-of-state students are eligible.

Help us grow South Dakota’s workforce one full-ride at a time!