WELLSBORO – Excellent career opportunities for licensed practical nurses exist in area hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, personal care facilities and human service organizations.
Penn College at Wellsboro’s Practical Nursing Program will host an information session for those interested in nursing as a career. The session will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, July 25, in the nursing lab at Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Wellsboro campus, 22 Walnut St.
Two weeks of the Injection Molding Processing Workshop offered by Pennsylvania College of Technology and its acclaimed Plastics Innovation & Resource Center attracted a variety of industry professionals to campus.
Twenty-eight individuals representing seven states and Puerto Rico attended the workshops that were delivered in separate five-day sessions. The sessions consisted of two sections: Decoupled Molding Setup and Operation and the Science of Injection Molding With Troubleshooting.
Timothy E. Weston, associate professor of plastics and polymer technology, taught the sessions with assistance from Spencer L. Cotner, of Muncy, a plastics and polymer engineering technology major and a PIRC research assistant.
Pennsylvania College of Technology and New Jersey Institute of Technology have been awarded a $7,996,530 federal grant to develop industry-driven strategies for apprenticeships in advanced manufacturing fields.
Penn College, a leader in innovative apprenticeship programs and a special mission affiliate of Penn State, and NJIT, New Jersey’s public polytechnic university, received the funding as part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s awarding of $183.8 million in grants to 23 academic institutions and consortia nationwide. The goal is to further expand apprenticeships and address the skills gap. The educational institutions are partnering with companies that provide a funding match. The ultimate aim is to satisfy industry’s enormous demand for trained American workers.
The expertise offered by Pennsylvania College of Technology and its acclaimed Plastics Innovation & Resource Center attracted an array of plastics professionals to campus for the recent Extrusion Seminar and Hands-On Workshop.
Individuals representing 22 companies from 10 states, Canada and Italy attended the 21st annual event that featured extrusion experts Chris Rauwendaal, president of Rauwendaal Extrusion Engineering Inc., and Kirk M. Cantor, professor of plastics and polymer technology.
Nearly two dozen registrants from eight companies in Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania attended the recent Plastics Materials, Processing and Testing workshop hosted by Pennsylvania College of Technology’s world-renowned Plastics Innovation & Resource Center.
The May 20-22 workshop, one of many that attract industry professionals to campus each summer, provided participants with a fundamental knowledge of polymers and how they are processed, tested and characterized.
WELLSBORO – Excellent career opportunities for licensed practical nurses exist in area hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, personal care facilities and human service organizations.
Penn College at Wellsboro’s Practical Nursing Program will host an information session for those interested in nursing as a career. The session will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 11, in the nursing lab at Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Wellsboro campus, 22 Walnut St.
Four employers met with more than a half-dozen Jersey Shore Area High School juniors and seniors Wednesday as Penn College Workforce Development hosted an “Industry Day” for students in its advanced manufacturing pre-apprenticeship program. Representatives of the Hershey Co., West Pharmaceutical Services, First Quality Enterprises and Conestoga Wood Specialties each provided an overview of their respective operations, corporate culture and career pathways, then networked with members of the group. (Students from Central Mountain High School were unable to attend.) This year is a grant-funded pilot for the college’s pre-apprenticeship program, and Christopher P. Ray, Workforce Development’s executive director for business development, said he hopes the 2019-20 program broadens participation by businesses and school districts alike.
Plastics professionals representing 17 companies, 12 states and Canada gave rave reviews for the recent Rotational Molding & Advanced Materials Workshop hosted by Pennsylvania College of Technology and its acclaimed Plastics Innovation & Resource Center.
“I feel like I am at Disneyland. I loved it that much,” said David Sharp of Acrylon Plastics in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
“A great course. The presenters took complex subject matter and broke it down to an elementary level that was practical and easy to understand,” said Mark Eberhardt of The Metal Ware Corp. in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
More than 100 industry officials, thought leaders and partners – representing 69 employers – attended Thursday’s second annual Apprenticeship Summit to discuss how best to close skills gaps, retain workers and attract new employees. The keynote speaker was Eric M. Seleznow, senior adviser with Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit that collaborates with national authorities on education, workforce development, business, technology, government and philanthropy. Other presenters at the summit, themed around “Best Practices in Apprenticeship,” included Joe Miller, senior human resources professional with First Quality Enterprises; Angela Hummel, talent development leader at Angela Hummel Consulting; and Eric M. Ramsay, director of the apprenticeship and training office for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. Among the Penn College representatives on the agenda were President Davie Jane Gilmour; Shannon M. Munro, vice president for workforce development; and Christopher P. Ray, Workforce Development’s executive director for business development. The day also featured workshops, networking opportunities, a showing of two recent college videos on apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, and lunch in CC Commons.
Penn College offers a unique manufacturing pre-apprenticeship program for high school students through its Workforce Development department. “We structure the … program around an industry-recognized credential,” Christopher P. Ray, Workforce Development’s executive director for business development, says in a video on the college’s YouTube channel. “Our pre-apprenticeship program is designed to provide foundational topics in manufacturing. The manufacturing pre-apprenticeship can lead to a potential career in almost any manufacturing field.” Students complete the yearlong program through a combination of hands-on work, online study modules and visits to the state-of-the-art labs at the college. Ray is a guiding force behind the college’s second annual Apprenticeship Summit, scheduled from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday in the Bush Campus Center.
A bipartisan group of state legislators, all present for President Davie Jane Gilmour’s budget request to the Senate Appropriations Committee in February, got a follow-up look at Penn College during a trip to main campus on Tuesday. Touring a number of instructional labs with Sen. Gene Yaw (chairman of the college’s board of directors), administrators, faculty and staff were Sen. Art Haywood (D-Cheltenham), minority chair of the Health and Human Services Committee; Sen. Thomas H. Killion (R-Middletown), who chairs the Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee; Sen. Daniel Laughlin (R-Erie), chair of the Game and Fisheries Committee; and Sen. Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia), minority chairman of the Banking and Insurance Committee. Along for the visit were H. Fred Walker, director of Erie County Technical School; Kendall Alexander, Haywood’s communications director; and three members of Street’s staff: policy assistant Micah Mahjoubian, legislative aide Angel Betancourt and special assistant Kenneth Carter. Some members of the Senate contingent, who collectively represent highly populated areas from Erie in the northwest to Philadelphia in the southeast corner of the commonwealth, also enjoyed lunch in Le Jeune Chef Restaurant.
Through Workforce Development, Penn College offers leading-edge registered apprenticeship programs for mechatronics technician, CNC precision machinist, industrial manufacturing technician and infrastructure maintenance technician. The college organizes and executes the programs for companies of all sizes, while incorporating state-of-the-art instruction – including streaming video between the college and employers at multiple off-campus locations. Under the program, featured on Penn College’s YouTube channel, apprentices can earn industry credentials, increased income, career advancement and credit toward Penn College degrees. “We have to start training our people to be more effective, more efficient, more productive,” says Eric Ramsay, director of the Apprenticeship and Training office in the state Department of Labor and Industry. If we want to make a better prodct, if we want to serve our customers better, we need more skilled, trained people.” Ramsay will be among the speakers at the college’s second annual Apprenticeship Summit, scheduled from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday in the Bush Campus Center.
WELLSBORO – A facility gifted to Pennsylvania College of Technology by UPMC Susquehanna is serving a new purpose as a site for instruction in practical nursing, medical assistant and other health care careers, as well as customized training for business and industry.
The 8,400-square-foot Penn College at Wellsboro facility, located at 22 Walnut St., was formally dedicated today in ceremonies that included members of the Penn College community, representatives of UPMC, elected officials and stakeholders, and others.
The second of two episodes of “PMA Perspective” featuring Penn College aired Sunday morning on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.
David N. Taylor, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, and the “PMA Perspective” crew toured and filmed in the plastics and polymer engineering technology labs, led by Kirk M. Cantor, professor of plastics technology; in automated manufacturing/machining, guided by Richard K. Hendricks, instructor of machine tool technology/automated manufacturing; and in rapid prototyping (3D printing), led by Eric K. Albert, associate professor of machine tool technology/automated manufacturing.
Last week’s first episode featured an interview with Penn College President Davie Jane Gilmour and a tour of the mechatronics lab. For that segment, Taylor interviewed Howard W. Troup, instructor of automated manufacturing/machine tool technology, and Christopher P. Ray, executive director, business development.
Both installments can be viewed on the “PMA Perspective” website.
An industry staple, computer numerical control machines are a common sight in Pennsylvania College of Technology’s automated manufacturing lab. Students operate the 17 CNC units daily to master the intricacies of using computer software to control the machines’ tools in shaping metal.
A recent addition to the CNC collection has changed the lab’s landscape. At 8 feet wide and 10 feet tall, the 18,000-pound unit towers above other instructional equipment in the 12,000-square-foot facility. The Genos M560 vertical machine center – built by the Okuma Corp. – makes quite the impression. More importantly, it offers students another valuable learning experience.
“It’s certainly a higher-end CNC unit,” said Richard K. Hendricks Jr., instructor and department head of automated manufacturing and machining. “It goes beyond the machines we typically have access to. If we were comparing it to a car, this would be like a Mercedes or BMW.”