Workforce Development

HACC’s Workforce Development and Continuing Education Division, in partnership with the School of Business, Technology and Industry, successfully held an advanced manufacturing industry summit with business partners throughout our service region on Nov. 18, 2020. The intention of this summit was to listen to manufacturers to gain insight to ensure HACC is providing training and services to keep Pennsylvania manufacturing relevant.

Participants in this summit included long standing HACC partners such as TE Connectivity, AFP (Advanced Food Products) and Tyson.

There were four common themes that resonated throughout the summit. They included:

• Recruitment/need for people

• Addressing language barriers

• Need for core soft skills and assessment testing

• Understanding what programs HACC offers that fit the needs of the advanced manufacturing industry

On Dec. 2, 2020, part II of the summit was held to address the above-mentioned themes in more detail as well as how HACC may be able to assist with training needs.

An additional component of part II was a presentation by Dr. Linnie Carter, executive director of the HACC Foundation. She discussed ways that industry can continue to support current as well as future HACC students.

Special thanks to Jennie Baar, Vic Rodgers, Jenn Mann, Monica Robinson and Cheryl Isaac for all their hard work in making the summit a success. There are plans to continue industry summits within the upcoming months. Plans are in place for a healthcare as well as automotive industry summits to take place in January and February 2021.

There has long been a divide between performing a technical rescue and providing advanced medical care at the scene of natural and man-made disasters. The first week of November, the first rescue medical practitioner course in the nation was hosted by the PSC. This 90-hour course contained online, in-class and practical requirements. The course was designed to help bridge the gap between providing advanced emergency medical care and functioning at an operations level during a technical rescue incident.

Students in this inaugural course enrolled from our local area, from agencies across the state, as well as from organizations in other states. The program required students to engage in the provision of emergency medical care while receiving practical education on how a rescue may be performed in the following disciplines:

• Rope rescue

• Confined space rescue

• Trench rescue

• Vehicle rescue

• Machine rescue

• Structural collapse rescue

• Floodwater rescue

This first cohort was so successful that interest has already been expressed by agencies across the state, leading to two programs being scheduled for 2021.

High quality childcare keeps children safe while their parents/guardians are working and prepares them for future educational success. Earlier this semester, four sections of HACC’s Child Development Associate (CDA) course rapidly filled to over-capacity, and the overwhelming interest prompted the addition of two class sections to meet the demand for Pennsylvania childcare staff to pursue this national credential!

The CDA class at HACC is a preparation course for students to assess with the National Council for Professional Recognition. The courses are offered through a grant from the Professional Development Organization (PDO) at the PA State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). Previously, the 135-hour, nine-month, course was typically held face-to-face at many of our campuses and occasionally online using a webinar-based platform, but this year all the workforce ECE classes are being held remotely using Zoom. The three key instructors of these courses Sharon Emerick, Karen Rucker and Anna Scaros did an amazing job pivoting the content to remote instruction to meet the industry demand during the pandemic and ensured the quality of content was maintained. Darby Miller was also instrumental in helping us deploy 20 iPads for students struggling with access to technology. We are #HACCproud to be educating a record, 148 childcare professionals from 19 different central Pennsylvania counties!