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Jimmy Alexander | jimmy.alexander@wtop.com
March 16, 2025, 5:29 PM
Northern Virginia Community College has started a scholarship program aimed at helping federal workers and contractors who lost their jobs due to the cuts by President Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency.”
The goal is to help those workers transition to a new career, according to the college’s website.
The NOVAnext program would provide up to 1,000 recently displaced federal workers living in Northern Virginia a million dollars in scholarship aid.
Qualified applicants will be able to enroll in one of 14 courses for free, while accessing resources from the college that could help in their job search.
“When we saw this happening across the region to our friends and neighbors,” Anne Kress, the president of Northern Virginia Community College told WTOP. “We thought there’s something we can do to give back.”
NOVAnext will connect impacted workers to 14 industry recognized credentials certifications in fields such as AI, IT, project management and human resources, which Kress said will increase their marketplace value.
For those who may want to start their own business, NOVAnext plans to offer boot camps that help with entrepreneurial skills.
Online workshops will also be part of the program that help with resume preparation, interview skills and job searching. Kress said those workshops help people to find the best way to present themselves when looking for their next job.
“They’ve got incredible skill sets, but maybe they don’t know how to use the language that employers might be looking for,” Kress said. “How do they capture that in a resume when they might not have updated their resume in 10 years?”
Kress pointed out the job market is quite different from when she started looking for work.
“Back in the day, LinkedIn didn’t exist. Key words didn’t exist. I remember just typing up a resume when I first started and handing it out on paper,” Kress said. “It is a very different world now, and we want to help those who are looking for that next opportunity find it through the NOVAnext program.”
To qualify for the scholarship, a displaced federal worker or contractor needs to have been laid off on or after Feb. 1, 2025.
Qualified workers must be Northern Virginia residents. Specifically, they need to have lived in Virginia for at least one year, and reside within the NOVA service area: Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park.
You can fill out an interest form online to be notified of when applications open, according to the program’s website.
Northern Virginia Community College partnered on NOVAnext with the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Alexandria Arlington Regional Career Workforce Council and Virginia Career Works.
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Jimmy Alexander has been a part of the D.C. media scene as a reporter for DC News Now and a long-standing voice on the Jack Diamond Morning Show. Now, Alexander brings those years spent interviewing newsmakers like President Bill Clinton, Paul McCartney and Sean Connery, to the WTOP Newsroom.
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