Career and technology centers workforce training initiatives: Career prep is the focus

The importance of school-based training for a career in the trades was hammered home to state education officials Friday during a tour of the Central Westmoreland Career and Technology Center in New Stanton, where they saw students of today preparing for jobs in the workforce a few years from now.

It’s important that the career and technology centers are aligning every program to industry credentials, said Lee Burket, executive director of the state’s Bureau of Career and Technical Education. The career and technology center’s occupational advisory committee, with industry representatives, help identify what is necessary in terms of training students for jobs in their businesses.

The tour allowed the state officials to see “what career and technology centers are transforming into,” said Jason Lucia, administrative director at the Central Westmoreland CTC, which has about 1,150 students from nine school districts in Westmoreland County and one in Fayette.

With the array of training programs offered to students, career training centers are not the old vocational-technical schools, said Robin Savage, a Greensburg Salem School Board member and one of the directors of the CTC joint operating committee.

“It is so different” than the myth of the old vo-tech schools, Savage said.

What the career and technology center has to offer has attracted more students from Belle Vernon Area, said Stacey Livengood, a Belle Vernon Area school board member who is on the CTC’s joint operating board. The number of Belle Vernon Area at the New Stanton center has increased from 40 two years ago to 140 this school year, Livengood said.

“A lot more kids are getting the opportunity for career training,” Livengood said.

Among the students who demonstrated their skills for the contingent of officials from the state and technology center, as well as school board members from member schools was Addie Hochlinski, a 10th grader at Norwin High School, who is in the powerline program that prepares students for a job as utility company worker.

Hochlinski said she wants to work for a utility company like West Penn Power in Greensburg. She rides past the company’s training yard along Route 30 in Hempfield each day on her way to the career and technology center.

“I like to do things that aren’t for girls,” Hochlinski said, adding that her mother is excited for her to choose this career path.

And it’s a lucrative one, said Todd Bartlow, powerline program instructor. The jobs pay well and there is a demand for the graduates of the program by utility companies, cable television firms and tree trimming businesses, Bartlow said.

To enhance the employment opportunities for students, the career and technology center has developed a program in advanced manufacturing where the center acts as a subcontractor for area machining businesses, said Jason Lucia, administrative assistant at the career and technology center. The center has partnered with machining businesses such as L&S Machine Co., Inc. and General Carbide Corp., both in Hempfield, and Stellar Precision Components of Jeannette.

It allows the students to work on real-life projects while giving them “work-learning experience,” Lucia said. By bringing work to the students, “we are basically flipping the script,” he added.

Such an initiative removes barriers that might prevent students from entering the workforce, such as not having a vehicle to get to work or not having a driver’s license, Lucia said.

“We have to find a better way to meet the employers’ needs, in conjunction with getting students the training and preparation for the workforce,” Lucia said.

From the perspective of Eli Downie, the state Education Department’s intergovernmental affairs director, the centers that prepare students for all ranges of industries are important for the future of the state’s workforce.

“It starts here with the CTCs,” Downie said “These are the pillars of the community.”