Three local apprenticeship programs to receive portion of $4.9 million state grant

Three apprenticeship programs in central Pennsylvania and Lehigh Valley are among 14 awarded grants totaling $4.9 million, Gov. Tom Wolf said. 

 “Throughout history, apprenticeships have been a vital part of career education in certain fields,” Wolf said. “Through these important grants, we are offering more Pennsylvania workers opportunities to train for family-sustaining jobs while helping businesses develop a workforce that will strengthen our economy and the communities most in need.”   

 Each of the 14 potential or currently registered apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship programs will use this grant funding to develop diverse talent pipelines, reach underrepresented populations, and expand workforce development opportunities in the building and construction trades across 55 counties. 

The local grants were awarded to: 

• Berks Connections Pretrial Services, $290,370, to expand and enhance Rebuilding Reentrants and Reading (R3), a registered pre-apprenticeship program in the construction trades that exclusively serves reentrants. The project will broaden the scope of R3 to include a welding component and a woodworking skills component. This program will serve a diverse and traditionally underserved population. 
• Insulators Local 23 Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, covering Adams, Berks, Centre, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Mifflin, Northampton, Perry, Schuylkill, Snyder and York counties, $264,981, to grow their registered apprenticeship training program and work toward establishing a pre-apprenticeship program. 
• TLC Work-Based Training Program, Inc., Dauphin County, $400,000, to continue offering practical learning for the in-demand construction trade acting as a community-based collaborative problem-solving model to address poverty and joblessness. TLC-WBT currently provides apprenticeship opportunities as well as a paid construction training program for people ages 17-25 to benefit veterans, ex-offenders, hard-to-place individuals, at-risk youth, and low- and moderate-income people. 

“Apprenticeship offers workers the opportunity to advance their careers while earning a paycheck, and it empowers employers to develop the specific skills they need among their employees to be successful in a dynamic economy. We need to make sure this workforce development model is accessible to workers of all backgrounds,” Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) Secretary Jennifer Berrier said.  

“Giving all Pennsylvanians the opportunity to earn wages while learning in-demand skills is a major step toward achieving diversity, equity and inclusion among the commonwealth’s workforce,” she said. 

 The grants, offered through L&I’s Apprenticeship and Training Office (ATO), are part of Governor Wolf’s PA Statewide Movement for Accountability, Readiness and Training (PAsmart) framework, created to better align education, workforce and economic development initiatives and funding.