Collin College will help retrain unemployed workers to get them back into the workforce.
The college — with campuses in Plano, McKinney, Frisco, Allen and Rockwall — landed $20 million from the U.S. departments of Labor and Education. It's the largest grant in the school's history.
The federal grant is designed to help people just like Kevin Dippel, who was laid off from his data center job.
"I wondered if I'm going to find a job and how long it's going to be," Dippel said.
The $20 million federal grant will help the college retrain displaced workers like Dippel for jobs in information technology, including health care and cyber security.
"It's to get people back to work," said Collin County College President Cary Israel.
More than 200 community colleges across the country applied for the grants, but only 32 were selected, including Collin College.
Israel believes the grant will make an impact on the North Texas job market.
"It's for individuals to totally retrain to get into this new field, or individuals who need to have these new skill sets for the emerging technologies," he said.
Pauline Tseng's retraining has allowed her to do much more at her medical job. She says her classmates are also finding success.
"All of them have been graduating and getting a job right away," Tseng said.
Kevin Dippel predicts the record-breaking federal grant will give other North Texans the same opportunity Collin College has given him: The right path to finding another job.
E-mail sstoler@wfaa.com
