Nanticoke, Luzerne County, PA -
Luzerne County Community College marked National Tradesmen Day on Friday with the launch of its L3C Building & Construction Trade Apprenticeship Readiness Academy and its first annual Skilled Trade Career Fair.
The event at the James T. Atherton Gymnasium on LCCC’s Nanticoke campus brought together hundreds of students from area career and technical education schools, skilled trade organizations, industry representatives and educational partners.
“Today’s event represents an important step in bringing together educational partners at the state and national levels to develop a first-in-the-nation skilled trade educational ecosystem,” said John Yudichak, president of LCCC. “By comprehensively integrating CTC high schools and community colleges with industry-driven training standards, we can help produce the highly skilled workforce Pennsylvania needs to meet the growing demand for skilled trade professionals.”
The new academy is a partnership between LCCC, the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges and TradesFutures. It will offer an Apprenticeship Readiness Program designed to give participants the foundational skills and knowledge needed to pursue and succeed in a registered apprenticeship in the construction industry.
TradesFutures developed the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum, or MC3, a 120-hour construction course that will be licensed to LCCC for use in its apprenticeship readiness programming.
The program is intended to help young people and adults pursue registered apprenticeships and careers in the building and construction trades.
“TradesFutures is proud to partner with Luzerne County Community College and the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges to expand access to apprenticeship readiness opportunities,” said Monica Floyd, deputy director of TradesFutures.
Statewide partnership
The L3C academy is part of a statewide effort by the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges and TradesFutures to expand access to skilled trade careers through community colleges, career and technical education schools and industry partnerships.
In May, the commission and TradesFutures announced a statewide partnership to implement the MC3 curriculum and apprenticeship readiness program model at all 15 Pennsylvania community colleges.
According to projections cited by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, Pennsylvania will need more than 300,000 skilled workers by 2030. Nearly 40% of the current skilled trades workforce is expected to retire within the next decade, while 9% of workers ages 19 to 24 are entering skilled trade professions, according to the release.
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