Create career pathways to fast-growing, 21st century jobs
“Pennsylvania businesses are hiring, and new and growing industries cannot find enough skilled workers. To meet that demand, we are combining Pennsylvania's amazing workforce, advanced technologies, and strategic location with innovative education and job training to prepare people for those emerging careers.”-Governor Tom Wolf
Why is this goal important?
The demand for highly skilled workers in Pennsylvania continues
to increase in an ever-changing economic environment. Putting Pennsylvanians on pathways to good-paying, 21st-century careers through education and skills training will help close our state's skills gap and strengthen families and communities. Investments in workforce development programs like apprenticeships benefit both employers and workers. Employers see reduced turnover, lower training costs, and improved
productivity, while workers have the opportunity to earn a paycheck and receive hands-on training and instruction that lead to highly respected
careers.
What are we working on to reach this goal?
To meet the demand for highly skilled workers, Governor
Tom Wolf continued the rollout of his groundbreaking PAsmart
initiative, announcing $10.8 million
in PAsmart Advancing Grants to expand access to computer science and STEM
education for Pennsylvania learners. Combined with PAsmart Targeted Grants, the
Wolf administration has awarded $20 million to bolster STEM and computer
science (CS) in schools and $20 million to support PAsmart
Apprenticeship Grants, Next Generation Industry
Partnerships and career and technical education. The number of new apprentices
in Pennsylvania annually has tripled to more than 4,700 since the Wolf
administration launched the Apprenticeship
and Training Office (ATO) in 2016.
How are we doing?
Governor Wolf has set a goal to increase the number of apprentices in Pennsylvania to 30,000 by 2025. The graphic below reports data on our progress as of June 2019.
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