The Chronicle of Higher Education (

The National STEM Consortium outlined a plan to offer five new training programs to colleges to close the gap between the skills employers need and those students are learning, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges. The consortium has been allocated a $20-million grant from the U.S. Labor Department to develop the program, which initially will concentrate on composites, mechatronics, environmental technology, cybertechnology, and electric vehicle technology. The customizable curricula are freely available to colleges online, and the one-year certificate programs require full-time attendance from students and give preference to veterans. To read further, please visit http://chronicle.com/article/Group-Seeks-to-Align-Curricula/145831/.