New Funding Awarded to Boost Awareness Of Manufacturing Careers in Bedford Co.

Governor Tom Wolf announced $200,000 in new funding for the Bedford County Technical Center (BCTC), through Pennsylvania’s Manufacturing PA Training-to-Career Program (MTTC) to help create awareness for students about rewarding local careers in the manufacturing industry.

“Both students and local manufacturers will benefit from this wonderful awareness campaign,” said Gov. Wolf. “It will start to build a pipeline of talent for local manufacturers and will show students and their parents the many exciting and rewarding opportunities available in the manufacturing industry.”

BCTC plans to use the funding towards two separate, but complimentary pieces: the implementation of the “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” video contest and a parallel community campaign to reinforce the contest message and promote opportunities in the region’s manufacturing sector to youth and other underserved residents.

The “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” video contest will be implemented in ten central Pennsylvania schools representing more than 10,000 students – six in Bedford County in year one of the program and four additional sites in Blair, Fulton and Huntingdon counties in year two.

The community-facing campaign will promote high-tech career opportunities within regional manufacturing companies and will run in parallel with the “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” video contest. The campaign is designed to expand the reach of the effort to the community, with a concentration on youth, recent high school graduates and underserved populations. The evolution of manufacturing has created exceptional high-tech career opportunities, many of which are available in the region’s companies. BCTC plans to highlight these companies and careers, along with the training path available to young workers.

“We are excited about the opportunities the Manufacturing Training to Career grant will provide the students, educators, and employers in Bedford County,” said Michael O’Dellick, Administrative Director, Bedford County Technical Center. “The grant will serve a dual purpose in the county-focused student engagement in local manufacturing and community awareness.”

The Bedford County Technical Center is a shared time career and technical school that serves the Bedford and Everett school districts. Three other districts including Tussey Mountain, Northern Bedford, and Chestnut Ridge and one charter school, Hope for Hyndman, send students on a paid tuition basis.

Governor Wolf’s Manufacturing PA initiative was launched in October 2017 and since then has funded 85 projects and invested more than $17.8 million through the MTTC program.

Training-to-Career grants support projects that result in short-term work-readiness, job placement, or the advancement of manufacturing. The Manufacturing PA Training-to-Career Grant program works collaboratively with local manufacturers to identify and teach missing essential skills for entry-level applicants seeking manufacturing employment, engage youth or those with barriers to career opportunities in manufacturing, and or advance capacity for local or regional manufacturers.