Edited from submitted information
Rep. Karen Boback (Lackawanna/Luzerne/Wyoming) and Rep. Tina Pickett (Bradford/Sullivan/Susquehanna) today announced that Keystone College in Factoryville, Wyoming County, will receive $173,841 in state grant funding to expand its early childhood education apprenticeship program.
The funds were awarded as a part of the state’s PAsmart initiative, part of $6.5 million in funding awarded statewide administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
“I am tremendously glad to announce these well-deserved grants that will go toward a worthwhile and, indeed, essential cause,” Boback (above) said. “I thank the governor for his investment in our area’s students and for the difference this funding will make to countless young people.”
“This is another example of how we can target state funds to prepare students with the skills needed by growing businesses in our region and across the Commonwealth,” said Pickett (above). “This program combines classroom education with on-the-job training that provides students with valuable hands-on experience while earning a paycheck.”
This round of funding will invest $1.6 million toward supporting registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship through ambassador networks, more than $2.9 million to build a diverse talent pipeline and expand non-traditional registered apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, and $2 million to build diversity within the construction and building trades.
This grant will make possible the expansion of Keystone College’s early childhood education apprenticeship program from a proposed 15 pupils to a new minimum of 25 pupils in 2020 through 2022.
Gov. Tom Wolf launched the PAsmart initiative in 2018 to increase STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and expand on-the-job training to prepare workers with the skills that growing businesses need.