Penn State New Kensington's campus and the Digital Foundry it's building nearby in downtown New Kensington have been awarded a $1.5 million federal Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities Initiative grant to create workforce education and reskilling programs in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The two entities will lead a project to implement such programs through a new initiative known as Growing and Reskilling Our Workforce in Pennsylvania (GROW PA). The entire initiative will be funded as a direct result of the $1.5 million grant.
GROW PA will aim to address three of the WORC grant program's areas of concentration.
The first, site readiness, includes addressing hurdles that regional manufacturing firms face when it comes to accessing credentialing programs and hands-on training tools and equipment.
Another area being addressed, work readiness, focuses on creating pathways and providing work-reading training to a select group of individuals who might be new entrants to the labor market, dislocated workers, veterans or incumbent workers. Efforts will also be made as part of this focus to provide advanced manufacturing technologies and training to local businesses.
Finally, operation readiness focuses on establishing an operating model that can offer technical skills training, credentials social support services, events and recruiting tools that can connect trainees of the program to employment opportunities.
“The WORC Initiative is designed to promote sustainable job opportunities and long-term economic vitality through workforce development activities that prepare dislocated workers, new entrants to the workforce and incumbent workers for good jobs in high-demand occupations aligned with regional economic development strategies,” Sherri McCleary, executive director of the Digital Foundry at New Kensington, said in a release. “Our GROW PA project focus is directly aligned with our broader mission and reason we exist.”
Funding for the grant comes from the Employment and Training Administration and in partnership with the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Delta Regional Authority.
When it is complete, the Digital Foundry's 15,044-square-foot innovation and manufacturing lab space will serve as a workplace hub for the town of New Kensington and the surrounding area. The new space will be accessible to local manufactures, K-12 school districts, college students, entrepreneurs and others.
In September, the U.S. Department of Energy, in partnership with the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Institute, designated Penn State New Kensington as one of four new Smart Manufacturing Innovation Centers in the nation, specifically for its Digital Foundry facility which is set to open in 2022.
