Governor Hassan Highlights Gateway to Work Initiative at New Hampshire Community Colleges

Press Release

As part of her efforts to expand middle class opportunity and build an even stronger workforce that innovative businesses need to grow and thrive, Governor Maggie Hassan today visited Manchester Community College to highlight her Gateway to Work initiative. The visit was part of a statewide Gateway to Work Community College Tour that the Governor launched yesterday at Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth.

"As we educate our young people and build the highly skilled workforce of the future, innovative businesses looking to grow here in New Hampshire need more workers now," Governor Hassan said. "We have an opportunity to better use the talent of our own people right here in New Hampshire, helping our businesses thrive while closing the opportunity gap for New Hampshire's children and families."

Announced in Governor Hassan's State of the State Address, Gateway to Work will repurpose existing federal funds to help New Hampshire's citizens succeed in the workforce by strengthening job training, creating new partnerships between community colleges and businesses for apprenticeship opportunities, helping remove the barriers that cause too many citizens to fail in the workplace, and helping young people in the Granite State get a leg up on their futures.

"Through Gateway to Work, we can provide more of the workers our businesses need to thrive," Governor Hassan said. "We can help give more of our families the opportunity to work their way to self-sufficiency and into the middle class. And we will do so using only existing federal funds, while achieving long-term savings for taxpayers by moving people off of public assistance."
The Department of Health and Human Services will collaborate with New Hampshire Employment Security, the Department of Resources and Economic Development, the Community College System of New Hampshire, and New Hampshire nonprofits to administer the program, refer participants and recruit businesses. The state is aiming to have contracts in place by July 1 to begin implementing Gateway to Work.

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