Career Center Offers a Variety of Programs

By Pfoutz, Yvonne

When the Franklin County Career and Technology Center (FCCTC) opened in 1969 near Chambersburg, its purpose was to provide vocational and technical education for high school students from the six school districts that built it.

Today, more than 900 secondary students attend classes at FCCTC in over 20 different specializations in construction; production; transportation; business; health, culinary arts and other services.

But after the teenagers-and increasingly during the school day as well-, adults arrive for CNC programming, industrial maintenance, blueprint reading, conflict resolution, employee retention, medical coding, cabinet making and other non-credit classes at the Penn State Mont Alto Workforce Development Center at the Franklin County Career and Technology Center.

Until 2004, Penn State Mont Alto’s continuing education classes were held in rented space at the Chambersburg Mall, but Teresa Shank, Perm State Month Alto’s director of continuing education, says, “Moving here [to the FCCTC] has helped our continuing education to. be more recognized as a resource by the business community.”

Before the partnership with Penu State Mont Alto’s continuing education, Shank says, “The career and technology center had been offering its own, vocationally-centered adult education classes in the evening, but mat was too big a project for its staff to manage.”

In exchange for space at the FCCTC, Shank and her staff of three administer the FCCTC classes, as well as Penn State’s continuing education courses, deciding what classes to offer and scheduling them, lining up instructors, marketing the courses and registering students.

“The most popular courses,” says Shank, “are HVAC, electricity, welding, ballroom dancing, wood carving-we’ve had to turn people away-and Zumba [a new aerobic dancing routine].

“Our management boot camp, which meets from 8 a.m. to noon on Mondays, is always popular. Many people get promoted because they are good at their job but then they need to learn supervisory skills, like how to delegate, solve problems, communicate.

“We also have lunch and learn seminars-one hour classes about topics like customer service or legal updates on areas like reference checks or OSHA-and certification classes for real estate, food safety, and auto inspection.

“At first, we kept the FCCTC and Perm State classes separate in the catalog,” says Shank, “but then we realized that most adults didn’t care. Now all the classes are listed together so the process is seamless for our customers.”

The Workforce Development Center can use FCCTC classrooms for evening courses but as demand for more daytime adult classes increased, the continuing education program needed more of its own space than just its 12-station computer lab. FCCTC director Jim Duffy obtained financial support from Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s South Central Workforce Investment Board and the Franklin County Area Development Corporation to renovate a 2,300- square-foot storage area into a classroom, shop classroom, office and workroom for the continuing education program. The renovation was hand-on training for FCCTC students who did much of the carpentry, plumbing, HVAC and electrical installation.

Teresa Shank is involved in many programs.

Because Shank says she hates to cancel classes when too few people enroll, the Workforce Development Center is also affiliated with an on-line provider, edZgo, which offers over 300 different courses, such as computer applications, graphic and Web design, foreign languages, business administration, grant-writing, sales and marketing, and accounting.

“Students register and pay online or if they prefer, can pay by check through our office rather than using a credit card. Each class is six to eight weeks, with a live instructor and a grade but no credits.”

Along with day and evening classes for individuals, Penn State Mont Alto’s continuing education staff also offers contract training- vocational and professional development classes customized for area companies.

“Our service area is Franklin, Fulton and half of Adams County, to Gettysburg,” says Shank. “We’ve worked with just about everybody in this area, with classes on everything from leadership skills to welding. We meet with the company to understand their specific needs and desired outcomes. It’s important to assess people’s needs and any underlying problems. They may think they need team-building but the real issue may be communication. After the needs assessment, we build a program for them, with classes to fit their schedule, on- site or here.”

Shank has also been working for several years with area manufacturers-including Scott Stine, manager of Tyco Electronics’ Waynesboro plant, which started its own machinist apprenticeships in 2006-to set up a countywide apprenticeship program.

“Each company would design its own on-the-job training component, and Penn State Mont Alto would provide the classroom instruction.

“We need to find the common ground in what to offer; what level of classes, whether credit or non-credit; and what outcomes are desired. York County already has an apprentice program, so we could use their curriculum. Instead of having a market and building a program, we’d have the program and need to build the market.

“We need at least six students to put together a class. If we have a core of people, a countywide buy-in, we’re looking at starting in fall 2009.

Shank is also active with the South Central Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board (SCWIB), which serves an eight-county area. Initially, the state workforce ‘ investment boards focused primarily on connecting the unemployed with employers, readying welfare recipients for the job market, and improving career education for young people.

“Ninety-five percent of the workforce development funding was aimed at dislocated workers,” says Shank, “but in Franklin County, for example, we’ve had very low unemployment for several years. So people began asking, ‘What are we doing for employed people?’”

Now Pennsylvania’s workforce investment boards are also funding incumbent worker training, with more than $40 million allocated since 2004, largely through partnerships organized around 10 industry clusters. In the south-central area, the most active industry clusters have been building and construction, transportation and logistics, healthcare and manufacturing. One of the subcommittees in the manufacturing cluster is industrial maintenance.

“The average age for industrial technicians is 47,” says Shank, who is coordinator for the Franklin/Adams County Industrial Maintenance group. “We need to attract and train new people.”

Since January 2006, 300 people have completed classes at the FCCTC-in industrial electricity, hydraulics, programmable logic controls, mechanical drives, electrical ladders and schematics,* and calibration-offered through the Franklin/Adams County Industrial Maintenance group.

The SCWIB funds 75% of the cost of classes; the 25% that companies pay for their students goes into a sustainability fund to continue the program.

Each class is limited to 12 students. Every company can send only two students unless the class is not full when they can apply for additional spaces.

To be a member of the Franklin/ Adams County Industrial Maintenance group, Shank says, means “coming to the meetings and being involved. There’s no fee to belong. It’s open to any manufacturer. If you attend meetings, your employees have access to the classes.”

Franklin County companies currently participating in the Franklin/ Adams County Industrial Maintenance consortium are Beck Manufacturing, Frick/Johnson Controls, Industrial Maintenance and Repair Services, JLG, Knouse Foods, Letterkenny Army Depot, Manitowoc Grove, RamTech, and Tyco Electronics. Adams County members include Schindler Elevator, Ahlstrom Filtration and Quebecor World.

The Franklin/Adams County Industrial Maintenance group meets at the FCCTC on the second Thursday of each month to discuss training issues.

“We’re looking at not only basic training,” says Shank, “but also advanced and CPMM [certified plant maintenance mechanic] certification classes as well.”

Shank is also the Franklin and Adams County site coordinator for the courses developed by the Healthcare cluster.

“The Healthcare steering committee develops curriculum for one class a year. First they looked at the low employee retention rate in long-term health-care facilities and developed a three-day, 18- hour training program for first line supervisors. After those classes, the committee got feedback about the need for training for upper management so they developed another course on creating a retention culture. The 2008 curriculum is about generational diversity [younger care-givers and older patients] for both leaders and front-line employees.”

Some of Shank’s activities are not directly related to Penn State, but Shank says, “Penn State encourages me to work with different entities in the community. The pillars of Penn State’s strategic plan for continuing education are workforce development, community engagement, adult credit classes and youth programs, but each campus puts its own stamp on ways to meet community needs.

“We’re more focused on workforce development. We know the resources we can bring.”

Copyright News for Business, Inc. Aug 2008

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