HOULTON – According to figures from The Maine Compact for Higher Education, the state will need an additional 40,000 degree holders by 2015 in order to meet the state’s work force and economic development needs.

An Aroostook County consortium aims to do its part to make sure students are prepared to both transition to and stay in college in order to get that degree with assistance from a grant from the Maine Department of Education.

The Aroostook County Consortium of Educators Promoting Transitions, or ACCEPT To College Initiative, is a partnership of five northern Maine adult and community education programs and three postsecondary institutions. The team is committed to distributing funding for access to college transition programming throughout The County in an equitable way.

The consortium recently got news that it had received the $70,000 DOE grant.

Five adult education programs – in Caribou, Fort Kent, Madawaska, Presque Isle and the Houlton and Hodgdon regions – collaborated to write the grant.

The ACCEPT initiative will serve approximately 100 Aroostook County learners each year, and the money will be used to provide college transition services on a countywide basis.

Such services are geared toward assisting learners following a nontraditional path to higher education. When high school seniors are preparing for college, they often turn to their school guidance counselors for assistance. But those who have been out of high school for a time and want to go to college don’t have that option. They may need counseling in areas such as financial aid, and some also might need help becoming academically prepared to take college courses.

Older learners can access college transition services to help gain admission to postsecondary institutions and to remain enrolled in school once admitted.

Such projects also help learners eliminate or reduce the number of development courses they may need to take while attending college.

Taking steps such as offering developmental courses that offer additional preparation to students in certain subjects before they enter college not only helps them be more prepared, it also means they will not have to use up valuable financial aid money taking such courses.

In concert with support from the five adult education programs, assistance for the ACCEPT initiative also will come from the University of Maine at Presque Isle, Northern Maine Community College and the University of Maine at Fort Kent – along with community groups including The Maine Educational Opportunity Center, The Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community, and the Maine Career Center. The students who participate in the Aroostook County program will take part in a number of educational sessions and will receive advising and counseling as part of the initiative.

All of the partners involved in the transition program will collaborate to provide services such as college-ready math, reading and writing instruction, group and individualized career counseling and individual meetings geared toward fostering college success.

The $70,000 grant will be spent over two years and will pay for instructional costs, assessment materials and student texts.