DCCC announces state grant, launches process operator program
The Delaware County Workforce Development Board, in partnership with Delaware County Community College, recently received a Pennsylvania Strategic Innovation grant for $200,539 from the Commonwealth’s Department of Labor and Industry.
The grant, one of 16 announced by Gov. Tom Wolf last month, will be used to improve career pathways and Allied Health programs by developing a seamless noncredit-to-credit educational pathway approach that will benefit students and employers in Delaware and Chester counties.
Through their partnership, the Workforce Development Board and the College will develop a plan to reach more potential students and will revise the College’s curriculum to facilitate awarding more credits to students for previous workplace experience, also known as prior learning. In addition, the grant will be used to implement a pilot program in the Allied Health career fields of medical billing and networking.
Strategic Innovation grants are designed to provide state funding for creative educational and training programs that prepare more workers for jobs that are in high demand by employers and that pay family sustaining wages. In April, Governor Wolf announced the award of the nearly $3.5 million in Reemployment Fund dollars to 16 Strategic Innovation projects across the Commonwealth.
“These funds will help Pennsylvanians develop the job skills needed to succeed in today’s workforce by employing creative and inventive workforce development strategies,” Governor Wolf said. “Strategic Innovation grants allow for well-coordinated approaches between state and local partners to provide high quality services for both job seekers and employers, focusing particularly on increased employment opportunities for Pennsylvanians with barriers to employment.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry awarded the grants through Local Workforce Development Boards across the Commonwealth. The grants encourage innovation in establishing career pathways, expanding the state’s pipeline of workers, increasing opportunities for youth workers, engaging employers directly to ensure that the skills gap is being addressed, and strengthening data sharing across state agencies and workforce development partners.
Delaware County Community College serves more than 23,000 credit and noncredit students online and at eight locations in Delaware and Chester Counties. The College, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, offers more than 50 associate degrees and 35 certificate programs. To learn more about the college, visit www.dccc.edu
Process op. program stars
Joining Braskem America, Eastern Controls and other industry leaders, Delaware County Community College officials today announced a new Process Operator Academy that will help train workers to be process operators in petroleum, chemical, pharmaceutical, food and other industries.
In just eight weeks, students taking non-credit, hands-on courses at the Process Operator Academy will learn the skills needed to be a successful process operator. Process operators oversee, monitor and maintain equipment, including valves, fittings, and pressure and measurement devices to ensure smooth work flow and state and federal regulatory and safety compliance.
Braskem America provided $15,000 to the College’s Educational Foundation to help develop and fund the Process Operator Academy. Both Braskem and Eastern Controls also helped the College create the curriculum for the new training program, which has already begun and is held at the College’s Advanced Technology Center at the Marple Campus and at Eastern Controls, based in Edgmont Township. Eastern Controls manufactures and distributes process control and instrumentation equipment. Headquartered in Brazil, Braskem produces thermoplastics and operates locally out of Marcus Hook.
Over the past decade, chemical and other industries have experienced a decline in the talent pool of skilled workers to fill highdemand jobs in large part because of the retirement of many baby-boomer generation workers. However, building a training program to support industry and replenish the skilled labor pool is no easy task and takes time, money and resources.
At the announcement today, Jeffrey Logan, executive director of the Pennsylvania Chemical Industry Council, said the Process Operator Academy can help manufacturers counter the “great tsunami” of babyboomer retirements affecting many industries by providing affordable, effective, quality training. “These types of partnerships are critical to replacing the skill sets that will be moving on,” Logan said. “We’re hoping to see this (training program) replicated across the state.”
According to Jeremy Glisson, industrial director for Braskem America, it typically takes Braskem three to five years to fully train a process operator. However, Braskem expects the Process Operator Academy will cut that training time in half, and plans to send four of its employees to the Academy for training later this month.
“We actually have a world class training facility right here in our own backyard,” Glisson said. “Thank you to Delaware County Community College.”