How Centre County schools, programs are preparing students to fill critical labor shortages

The United States is facing an unparalleled labor shortage, and in Centre County, organizations and schools are preparing students to fill key roles in growing sectors.

After many job sectors went on hold due to COVID-19, businesses, construction and schools are back in full force and they’re missing a key component — workers. The labor force population in the state is at its lowest level since 1987, according to WESA in Pittsburgh.

“In my 20 plus years, I have never seen a tighter workforce market than right now,” Todd Taylor, vice president of secondary education at the Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology, said. “Employers are struggling to find not just people but skilled people.”

CPI provides courses and technical training for high school and postsecondary students. Programs include cosmetology, health sciences, construction, welding and many more, with a focus on hands-on training and courses.

“You have to be a smarter consumer today, whether you’re a high school student or parent,” Taylor said. “You need to decide what’s the best pathway for you as opposed to, let’s just gather everybody up and send them to college, whether that’s the right thing to do or not.”

Another program working to prepare students is CentreReady, run by the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County. CentreReady works with students to help them build soft skills that are vital to any job or industry.

“You can learn the technicalities but things like teamwork or communication, that’s what makes every company work,” Greg Scott, president of CBICC, said.

Students who’ve completed the CentreReady program get an official designation, which can help them stand out to local employers, Scott said.

Penns Valley students can take advantage of a program that allows them to job shadow and intern at businesses around Centre County.

Jessica Martin, the district’s career and college ready coordinator, works to place students with local businesses. She meets with the students once a week to talk about their progress and general career advice.

“I’ve had students placed with an engineer, with US Fish and Wildlife Service, with accountants, with lawyers,” Martin said. “I’ve had students with Premier Select Sires and they taught him how to artificially inseminate cows.”

Internships are graded as a pass/fail elective and can be anywhere from nine weeks to a year if the students have space in their schedule.

Although the structure of the internship is flexible and based on the students, there are set standards of learning. At the start of an internship, Martin and the employer create a training plan that outlines what the student will learn.

“There is no curriculum, it’s all hands-on learning by their host,” Martin said.

Organizers of these programs have seen a growing need for workers in all industries but especially education, health care and energy.

Education

One job Martin sees a lot of interest in is teachers. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a growing shortage of teachers and substitutes. Pennsylvania is seeing a shortage of teachers in a variety of subjects, including math, science, elementary education and technical education.

According to projections by the state Department of Labor and Industry, K-12 education jobs are expected to grow 7.1% by 2030. Technical education jobs are expected to grow 11.1%.

Marielle Gretok is a 2021 Penns Valley graduate who participated in Martin’s program during her senior year as a technical education intern.

“I wasn’t really planning on getting anything out of it but I actually changed what I wanted to go to school for and now it’s the career I want to have,” Gretok said.

She is now a freshman at California University of Pennsylvania where she is majoring in technical education. After graduation, she hopes to move back to Centre County.

“My ideal job would be at Penns Valley, where I went to high school,” Gretok said. “The technology program there is really well developed and when you’re teaching there, you get to teach multiple different aspects of it.”

Gretok also learned about the unglamorous work that goes into teaching, like ordering classroom and workroom supplies, handling paperwork and dealing with sometimes unruly students. But for Gretok, seeing the students she helped finish their projects was a highlight of her internship.

“You have to act like a teacher, you have to come up with those projects,” Gretok said. “And you have to make sure that those projects are easy enough that all students can do it but hard enough that it’s a challenge for students.”

Health care

One recent struggle with Penns Valley’s student internship program is lack of access to the medical field due to safety concerns related to the pandemic.

“I have a lot of students that want to be (physician assistants) and nurses, and right now with COVID, it is really hard for us,” Martin said. “They’re not having job shadows at this time, which I understand but it is a disservice to our students not being able to get in there to observe and shadow someone.”

The health care industry has grown since the onset of the pandemic due to high demand. Centre County is projected to see a 27.3% increase in nurse practitioners by 2028, according to the Department of Labor and Industry.

CPI has also seen a increase in demand for health science training.

“We have building plans on our campus to expand our two-year technical associate’s degrees in the health sciences,” Taylor said. “So programs like surgical technician, occupational therapy assistant, physical therapy assistant, med lab tech. So that’s a major expansion on our post secondary side plan for health sciences.”

CPI has also seen increased interest in front-line responder jobs, like EMT or emergency services.

“I don’t see that changing even when COVID goes away and hopefully goes away soon,” Taylor said. “I don’t see the end of the surge in the health sciences area.”

Energy

CPI has seen increased interest in energy-related jobs from its students. CPI has a natural gas compression program, endorsed by equipment manufacturing companies Caterpillar and Ariel.

Pennsylvania produced 7.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2020 and is the nation’s second largest producer. Pennsylvania is also the third largest producer of energy in the nation, behind Texas and Wyoming.

“People are recognizing the quick return on their investment when they look at solar, and we do have a solar diploma program,” Taylor said. “It’s really taking off.”

The clean energy sector could see more growth in the coming years, as the state Department of Labor and Industry has announced several clean energy grants totaling $2.5 million for workforce development.