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Delivering Free Grant Workshops Through Partnership With JARI

Career Services and Workforce Development at Pennsylvania Highlands Community College, with support from JARI through the Supporting Learning Communities grant program, recently completed two workshops in September and October on communications and diversity that successfully assisted 38 total participants.

The first workshop discussed communication skills, helping to improve the level of professionalism amongst co-workers. The second workshop discussed diversity in the workplace, allowing employees to let their guards down and build healthy business relationships.

The overall objective of the Supporting Learning Communities grant is to provide individuals with resources to access education programs, leading to careers that pay family sustaining wages and offer opportunities for career advancement.

“This grant program will help make a long-term impact on local individuals, families, and the region’s economy,” stated Debi Balog, Director of Workforce Development at JARI. “Building up our current and future workforce, that’s the vision for this program.”

The grant provides both pre-employment and workforce training. Pre-employment training provides soft skills and digital literacy training courses for job seekers and those seeking career advancement. Workforce training provides relevant group training for incumbent workers in need of “middle skills” upgrades.

Additional free workshops are coming in November and December. These cover Time Management and Zoom Basics, and are currently registering participants. More workshops are in the works for early 2021 and beyond.

“We are excited to be the provider of these ongoing, timely, and essential career readiness workshops for Cambria and Somerset County residents,” stated Larry Brugh, Dean of Career Services and Workforce Development at Penn Highlands Community College. “The generosity of an anonymous donation made it possible for this grant program to offer this training at no cost to the participants.”

“In addition to serving our residents with pre-employment training topics, we are able to implement career advancement education for our middle-skilled incumbent employees from regional businesses. We look forward to working in collaboration with our JARI colleagues and regional industry partners.”

Pennsylvania Highlands Community College has been serving the area with inclusive workforce training needs since 1994.