Aug. 30, 2019
HANOVER –Reps. Kate Klunk (R-Hanover), Torren Ecker (R-Adams/Cumberland) and Dan Moul (R-Adams), along with Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-33) announced a $99,000 grant to Hanover-area business for career-building apprenticeships.
This grant goes hand-in-hand with efforts in the General Assembly to improve career and technical education (CTE). Lawmakers have made improving Pennsylvania’s workforce a top priority and have passed several bills to make CTE better so that students are prepared to enter the trades jobs where they can make family-sustaining wages.
“Earlier this year, the House approve
House Bill 785 to create a new grant program to support apprenticeships in the Commonwealth. The bill uses a successful partnership between the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce, numerous Hanover-area businesses, the Hanover Public School District and South Western School District as its basis,” Klunk said. “We can learn a lot from what’s happening in Hanover, and I am glad to see the state investing in our local apprenticeship programs.”
The grant was awarded to the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce for apprenticeship programs at Elsner Engineering Works, KLK Welding and Utz Quality Foods in Hanover. The $99,000 grant will assist with implementing apprenticeship programs to meet the need for skilled workers to sustain and grow businesses and the economy.
“Our school districts have been implementing new and improved programs to prepare students for a future in the trades. In fact, the Conewago Valley School District built its new state-of-art Colonial Career and Technology Center to teach students,” Ecker said. “This grant will allow private businesses to complement the education students receive in public school.”
The three employers to benefit from the grant will turn over nearly half of their skilled workforce over the next eight years. The funding will help fill the skills gap.
“The apprenticeship grants are important because they will help to ensure that these manufacturers and the jobs they provide will remain here in our area. Without a well-trained workforce to fill the jobs of retiring workers, many of these family-sustaining jobs would go away. These grants will strengthen Pennsylvania’s manufacturing sector, our communities and our state’s economy,” said Moul.
“As part of the state spending plan that was recently adopted by the General Assembly, Senate Republicans created a stronger environment for job growth through fiscally-responsible budgeting and supported new funding to help more Pennsylvanians find jobs, and train for their careers of today and tomorrow,” Mastriano added.
Representative Kate A. Klunk
Representative Torren Ecker
Representative Dan Moul
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Greg Gross
717.260.6374
ggross@pahousegop.com
Senator Doug Mastriano
Pennsylvania Senate
Media Contact: Scot Pitzer
717.787.4651
spitzer@pasen.gov