Local community colleges to take large role in Amazon AI education plan

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Community colleges in the state are getting a boost to help foster AI innovation. 

Amazon recently announced that it plans to invest at least $20 billion to establish multiple high-tech cloud computing and artificial intelligence innovation campuses across Pennsylvania. 

The investment is expected to create at least 1,250 high-paying, high-tech jobs.  

Under the lead of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges (PACCC), Luzerne County Community College, Lehigh Carbon Community College, Northampton Community College and Bucks County Community College are joining forces to partner on a Technology and Trades Workforce Consortium in an expanded Northeast Region of Pennsylvania. 

The PACCC collaboration will bring together these community colleges to address workforce needs during the construction of hyperscale data centers and the jobs needed once they are built. As more hyperscale data centers are constructed, other community colleges across the state will join to expand the ADVANCEPA Technology & Trade Workforce Consortium. 

“We are so honored to advance Pennsylvania in economic development, workforce development, and even quality of life,” said Lehigh Carbon Community College President Dr. Ann Bieber. “The community college sector is pleased to serve in this capacity.” 

The effort will include the creation of a Career and Technology Academy, which will be a regional partnership formed by community colleges and career and technical center high schools to create new pathways for career and technical center students to earn post-secondary credentials in technology and the skilled construction trades.   

A MicroCredential Academy will also be created to rapidly develop post-secondary credential program that makes upskilling career credentials for Pennsylvania workers efficient, cost-effective and accessible.  

There will also be a Construction and Trade Pre-Apprenticeship Academy aimed at creating a strategic partnership the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trade Unions is to build a pre-apprenticeship pipeline of students who will learn from a foundational curriculum that will prepare them to enter union registered apprenticeship programs and secure employment in the skilled building and construction trade industry.  

The Technology and Trades Workforce Consortium will strategically coordinate resources, avoid duplicative investments in equipment, and foster innovative college and industry collaborations that will streamline a fragmented workforce development system to deliver the highest quality workforce in Pennsylvania history.  

“Our long history as a sector of partnering and collaborating is key to this Consortium,” said Northampton Community College President Dr. David Ruth. “Pennsylvania’s community college sector has a long history of collaboration and educating our citizenry in various ways.”