Business-Education Partnership grant to aid local coalition
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The Fayette Business Education Partnership will benefit from a grant announced earlier this month by the state Department of Labor & Industry.
The collaborative of the Fayette Chamber of Commerce and Westmoreland-Fayette Workforce Investment Board aimed at addressing workforce development needs in the county is set to receive funding passed down from the state to local workforce development boards across Pennsylvania.
The Westmoreland-Fayette WIB was the recipient of a $127,050 Business-Education Partnership grant in the 2018-19 round of funding that is intended to connect businesses and school districts across Pennsylvania to raise awareness of in-demand technical careers for students, parents and teachers and to create new career opportunities.
As Fayette County’s workforce development arm of the Westmoreland-Fayette WIB, the Fayette Business Education Partnership will dip into that grant money to fund operational costs and the majority of its educational and professional development programming through June 2020 as it provides numerous events and learning opportunities to area students and teachers.
“At any given time on the Pennsylvania CareerLink website, there are at least 1,000 open jobs (in Fayette County),” said Muriel Nuttall, executive director of Fayette Chamber of Commerce who heads the program with Fayette Business Education Partnership coordinator Kathi Hull.
“We see our work in schools as building blocks for students, helping to build next step for them as they enter the workforce. Our businesses really need these employees, and these grants are really the vehicle as we create the workforce of the future.”
Nuttall anticipates receiving about $50,000 of the Westmoreland-Fayette WIB’s 2018-19 BEP grant.
The Fayette Business Education Partnership was formed in 2012 to join area educators, legislators, community groups and businesses to address employment needs and career readiness among students.
Events held throughout the year help get students interested and active in STEM and entrepreneurship education and in exploring career opportunities.
The Westmoreland-Fayette WIB will use some of the funding to further develop a pilot STEM and computer education program that will serve more than 600 K-12 students in Fayette and Westmoreland counties.
Beginning in the summer of 2019, the funds will be used to support a web-based portal that local companies can use to post information about internships, mentoring or job shadowing opportunities for students.
In total, $2.6 million in BEP grants were awarded to 22 workforce development boards across the state.
The Westmoreland-Fayette WIB received the ninth-largest grant in the 2018-19 round of awards.
“I think it’s proof-positive that the work that is going on in the two counties is good and that it’s making a difference,” said Nuttall.
BEP grants are funded entirely through federal money made available from the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act.