The Daily Item
LEWISBURG — The Central Pennsylvania Workforce Development Corporation (CPWDC) announced that it has received a $500,000 grant from the PA Department of Labor and Industry that will enhance training services available to job seekers in the region. The award will fund the Pathways to Employment initiative, a new partnership with the North Central and Southern Alleghenies Workforce Development Boards and Adult Basic Education Coalitions that will focus on workers who lack basic skills in reading, math and communications that inhibit them from successfully completing occupational classroom training and sustaining employment.
To reach that hard to serve demographic, CPWDC will partner with local training providers and the PA CareerLink to develop and pilot an Integrated Education and Training (IET) program. The IET approach provides adult education activities concurrently and contextually with workforce training for a specific occupation. By providing basic education skills and job training in parallel with one another, IET allows the two to be mutually reinforcing.
The grant will also serve other long-term unemployed and incumbent workers by increasing funding for on-the-job and classroom training. In total, the grant will support 330 individuals receiving training, education, and work preparation activities, including 250 dislocated workers and 80 incumbent workers. Additional information on how to participate in these trainings will be available at the local PA CareerLink beginning in April.