Penn State Outreach is helping Pennsylvania's workforce remain competitive in many ways. This is another in a series highlighting how faculty and staff are working with industry clusters across the Commonwealth to deliver customized worker training.
University Park, Pa. -- Penn State Lehigh Valley is partnering with the Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board Inc. (WIB) and other area organizations to offer a wide range of youth-focused programming to help educate and prepare young people for the workforce, according to Ken McGeary, regional director of Continuing Education and Outreach at Penn State Lehigh Valley.
The Kids Connect Project, funded by a grant made possible by the Lehigh Valley WIB, benefits more than 90 inner-city children each year, connecting them with services and programs from the Penn State Lehigh Valley Writing Project, the Allentown School District, the Allentown Public Library, Head Start and the Lehigh Career and Technical Institute.
Another program funded through a grant secured by the Lehigh Valley WIB, the Keystone Program, is benefiting more than 100 inner-city middle-school students at South Mountain, Raub and Trexler Middle Schools by helping them build life and career skills.
Penn State Lehigh Valley's Capstone Program introduces high school students in the Health Science Academy at Allen High School to a wide spectrum of health-care careers through hands-on experiences in a hospital environment. And the Penn State Lehigh Valley/CareerLink Academic Enrichment and Employment Training Program provides the tools for high school students from diverse social and economic backgrounds to succeed in school and to get a head start on career goals.
Penn State Lehigh Valley also offers a broad array of professional training and education programs for adults, including the new Practical Nursing Program, at its Corporate Learning Center in Bethlehem. For information, visit http://www.lv.psu.edu/CE/ce.htm online.
The Commonwealth supports the formation of partnerships among WIBs and local businesses and educational institutions for education and training purposes. Gov. Ed Rendell has provided nearly $24 million for worker training and development programs, including $15 million for Industry Partnership Worker Training aimed at advancing the skills of workers in the state's nine targeted industry clusters: advanced materials and diversified manufacturing; agriculture and food production; building and construction; business and financial services; education; information and communication services; life sciences; logistics and transportation; and lumber, wood and paper.
About Penn State Outreach's commitment to workforce development:
The Office of Economic and Workforce Development, a Penn State Outreach unit, helps to advance the economic well-being of Pennsylvania by serving as a catalyst, facilitator and collaborator for using the resources, expertise and intellectual assets of Penn State to help create and retain jobs in the Commonwealth and enhance the skills of its workforce.
The Penn State Outreach organization is the largest unified outreach organization in American higher education. Penn State Outreach serves more than 5 million people each year, delivering more than 2,000 programs to people in all 67 Pennsylvania counties, all 50 states and 80 countries worldwide.