Northampton Community College (NCC) will be distributing $278,596 in grant money to eligible companies in the college’s region as a part of WEDnetPA, an alliance of educational providers serving the commonwealth’s business community. Companies accepting these training grants can choose any of NCC’s programs, credit or non-credit. The most popular courses utilized are related to our Center for Business and Industry (CBI) departments: Leadership, Corporate & Public Safety and Technical. This year marks 21 years of funding assistance for qualified businesses in the commonwealth to provide training to existing staff members.
“Now, more than ever, employee training is a necessary strategy for survival and companies in Pennsylvania are fortunate the Commonwealth has made this a priority investment, but the circumstances of the day have added a layer of complexity unlike anything we’ve seen in the past. Fortunately, WEDnetPA is employer driven and provides for an array of training methods, including online, distance learning and in-house training, which accounted for more than 20 percent of all training completed last year,” said WEDnetPA State Director, Thomas Venditti.
As a partner through WEDnetPA, NCC disperses Commonwealth funds to reimburse companies that do incumbent training for Pennsylvania resident employees.
In fiscal year 2019-2020, $6,500,964 was invested in trainings and provided 24,359 employees with access to education in Essential Skills and Advanced Technology. Essential Skills training can include guidance in communication and teamwork, health and safety, business and computer operations, manufacturing fundamentals, quality assurance and more. Advanced Technology training can include guidance in advanced manufacturing technology, advanced software implementation, computer programming, software engineering and more.
WEDnetPA has grown to become the primary delivery system for Pennsylvania’s incumbent workforce training. Each year, WEDnetPA partners continue to reach out to significant numbers of companies and employees.
“It has been our honor to be a chosen Partner with the State’s DCED department for over many years. We believe this program adds value to our visibility in the community and provides us an opportunity to assist businesses throughout the Lehigh Valley region,” says Denise Holub, NCC’s senior business manager of community education.
Workforce training grants align with Governor Wolf’s $30 million PAsmart workforce development initiative, an innovative way to improve coordination between state agencies, cut red tape, and invest in people and business to create and expand innovative job training so workers get the skills that businesses need to compete in the global economy.
