Bank of America has donated $1 million to Northern Virginia Community College for minority job training and education programs.

Northern Virginia Community College will use the donation to develop new programs and enhance existing ones aimed at addressing specific skills gaps and target hiring needs at companies in the D.C. area.

The Northern Virginia Community College grant is part of $25 million Bank of America had donated to 11 community colleges and 10 public Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions.

As part of these partnerships, Bank of America works directly with major employers to ensure the schools’ programs are targeting specific job skill needs.

“NOVA is committed to ensuring that every student achieves and every community prospers, and with this investment, we will connect even more students to in-demand workforce pathways that lead to meaningful, sustaining careers, ensuring that the full community is supported with the resources they need to achieve,” said Anne Kress, president of Northern Virginia Community College.

Bank of America has provided more than $3 million in job initiative grants to nonprofits in the Washington region this year, most of it to minority organizations or those that serve minorities.

Bank of America is among the sponsors of the nonprofit Virginia Ready Initiative, which connects Virginians forced out of work by the pandemic with free access to certification programs at Virginia’s community colleges, in addition to connecting them with employers who have jobs to fill in their retrained fields.

The Virginia Ready Program already has 500 people enrolled in certification programs throughout the state.

Bank of America’s most recent donations are part of its $1 billion, four-year commitment to advancing racial equality and economic opportunity for minorities.