In an announcement yesterday, Gov. Bob McDonnell,surrounded by Virginia college students recommended the state budget allocate $100 million towards higher education efforts. McDonnell hopes this will make college more accessible and bring down the costs of tuition, which has doubled over the last decade. The Governor said: “ It is our responsibility to ensure that [...]

  There is a lot of media coverage today of a survey revealing that Virginia’s state lawmakers are among the nation’s most educated. Here’s how the Richmond Times-Dispatch is describing it: Nearly 89 percent of members of the General Assembly have earned at least a bachelor’s degree, ranking Virginia second among the states in the educational achievement [...]

The Special Session of the 2011 General Assembly is officially in recess after both the House of Delegates and Senate last night agreed on legislation establishing the boundaries for new House and Senate districts pursuant to the 2010 census. HB 5005 has been sent to the Governor for his signature; the Governor will have seven [...]

U. S. Senators Mark Warner and Saxby Chambliss addressed hundreds of businesspeople at a Virginia Chamber of Commerce event in Richmond yesterday. Representing the “Gang of Six,” named for the six members of a commission dedicated to tackling the nation’s increasing debt and deficit, the senators shared that there are tough decisions ahead and sacrifices to be [...]

On February 9th, 2011 I had the chance to go to Richmond and visit the General Assembly, something you just don’t experience every day. As a student of Patrick Henry Community College, the Virginia state legislators’ decisions for funding the Virginia Community College System has a lot to do with me. I felt it was [...]

My name is Scottie Davis. I am a student at Wytheville Community College (WCC), majoring in Construction Trades with a specialization in HVAC and solar technology. I worked as a maintenance technician for 12 years at a local industry. When that industry closed, I could have gone to college but didn’t — because I didn’t think [...]

Career coaches and Virginia Education Wizard staff will be answering the phones at Call12 tonight on NBC 12 in Richmond. Virginia Education Wizard gives students and parents a simple one-stop place to investigate higher education and career plans at Virginia’s Community Colleges and beyond. You can find information about programs and majors that will help you [...]

This week, workforce liaisons from 22 states across the country met in Newport News, Virginia for the National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practices Workforce Liaisons meeting. The liaisons, who meet each year at this time, discussed a broad range of workforce, economic and educational subjects ranging from global competitiveness, emerging industries, role of community [...]

This morning Heritage Public Library, Chamal Community Development Corporation and Beautiful Temple Ministry were recipients of three new computers donated by IBM, in partnership with the United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg and the SHARE (Showing How Access to Resources Empowers) Network, to connect individuals to employment resources, job training and educational opportunities. Trisha Steiniger, assistant vice [...]

Amid continuing discussions about the rise in unemployment, major layoffs and an unsteady economy, BusinessWeek brings a bit of good news to the workforce in Virginia. Two of Virginia’s metro areas were voted by the publication as the one of the top 20 “Best Places to Start Over“. Criteria for the list was based on [...]