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Over 1,200 Local Employees Trained By Penn Highlands Last Year

Pennsylvania Highlands Community College reached its highest total ever for managing Workforce and Economic Development Network of Pennsylvania (WEDnetPA) funding, reaching $569,220 in grants available for the training of employees across Pennsylvania in 2022-23.

Penn Highlands, which is one of 22 educational institutions that are considered partners of WEDnetPA, received $457,420 in grant funds and an additional $111,800 from the Governor’s Action Team (GAT) Fund to cover the Laurel Highlands and Southern Alleghenies regions of Pennsylvania.

Funds supplied by the GAT were used to train employees at DelGrosso Foods in Tipton, PA.

This past year, Penn Highlands helped train 1,214 total employees from 35 companies, which was an increase in funds of over 78 percent and a jump of more than 300 employees since 2021. Cambria County was assisted the most by the funding, with 517 employees trained, a rate of 48 percent. Blair County was second with 470 (34 percent), while Somerset County had 56 (8 percent).

“The Workforce and Economic Development Network of Pennsylvania funding is vital to our region to ensure that businesses have access to a highly skilled labor force and that residents have the education and training they need,” stated Julie Davis, Penn Highlands Director of Workforce Education. “Not only are we working to provide funding to help defray the cost of training, but we are also training employees throughout the region to improve their skill sets.”

WEDnetPA is an alliance of educational providers across Pennsylvania that act as the delivery mechanism for the Commonwealth’s WEDnetPA program. It was created to make companies across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania more competitive locally, nationally, and internationally by updating and improving the skills of their employees to meet specific company needs.

WEDnetPA brings training funds to qualified companies across the Commonwealth through a network of community colleges, state system universities, and other educational institutions.