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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Marc Gergely |
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Gergely supports Center for Advance Manufacturing Careers
HARRISBURG, Oct. 1 – In one of his first actions as a new member of the Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board, state Rep. Marc Gergely, D-Allegheny, Wednesday supported the creation of the Pennsylvania Center for Advanced Manufacturing Careers.
The center will identify the type of training that workers will need for jobs in advanced manufacturing and work with community colleges and other educators to teach the necessary skills.
"I was extremely proud to vote to create this initiative during my first meeting with the PA WIB and that the Steel Valley Authority in Allegheny County has been chosen to facilitate the development of the Center," Gergely said. "Developing and expanding advanced manufacturing in Pennsylvania is critical to our economy and job creation. In order to attract and retain these types of businesses, we must have a more intense workforce investment focus, and the Center for Advanced Manufacturing Careers will do that."
Gergely said initial outreach to manufacturing employers, associations, labor unions and existing industry partnerships will be performed to identify successful strategies and barriers to growth of advanced manufacturing in Pennsylvania. Next, development of the center will be completed early next year with a leadership council of manufacturing employers, unions, and other workforce and economic development leaders.
"The state is using PA WIB's highly successful Center for Health Care Careers as a model. It has helped to ease the state's nursing shortage by expanding nursing training programs and retaining quality health-care workers in the profession," Gergely said. "We expect the Center for Advanced Manufacturing Careers will have a similar benefit to the manufacturing industry by identifying the new skills workers will need for these types of jobs and assisting our training programs to teach those skills.
"By expanding the pool of highly trained workers, we can attract more manufacturing to Pennsylvania and create opportunities for people to get new jobs or advance their careers," he said.
Gergely said the Steel Valley Authority is an inter-municipal economic development agency for the Mon River region, which includes communities in his legislative district. Among its many initiatives, the SVA partners with the Department of Labor and Industry to manage a program that helps struggling companies, primarily in manufacturing, to develop new business plans and make other improvements to stay in operation.
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