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News from
Lane Community College, Eugene, Oregon
Public information officer: Joan Aschim, (541) 463-5591, aschimj@lanecc.edu
News for release January 22, 2007
LCC wins $1.97 million grant for regional dental hygiene training
EUGENE - Lane Community College has received a $1.97 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop regional dental hygiene training to address workforce needs in Oregon and Idaho.
The grant is one of 72 awards made from the President’s Community-Based Job Training Grants Initiative administered by the DOL, following a request for proposals that drew 429 applications.
Lane’s project is titled the Northwest Partnership for Dental Hygiene Solutions and involves 16 partners. These include Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, and Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. Other partners represent workforce agencies, K-12 education, the dentistry profession, and the business community.
Students will be able to earn an associate degree in dental hygiene from Lane by combining local clinical instruction with interactive televised lectures from Lane. Lane offers the only two-year dental hygiene degree among the partner colleges, but is at clinical capacity to maintain the 6-to-1 student-instructor ratio required by accreditation. Lane presently graduates 18 to 20 students annually. Under the grant, Lane will be able to serve at least 18 additional students. Sharon Hagan is lead dental hygiene faculty and will direct the grant project. Partner colleges will avoid the costs of starting up and running independent programs. The program will be further developed to serve other communities throughout the United States on an as-needed basis.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor ranks dental hygiene among the top 10 fastest growing occupations. Oregon estimates a need for 971 more hygienists between 2004 and 2014, a 33.1 percent increase, and Lane County projects a need for 56 more hygienists in the same time period, a 27.6 percent increase. Growing demand also is projected for Benton, Lincoln and Linn counties in Oregon, and in northern Idaho.
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