WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) today announced that the U.S. Department of Labor has awarded the Westmoreland-Fayette Workforce Investment Board (WIB) a $3,302,460 grant to provide job training and placement assistance to workers in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
“This is great news for workers in Southwestern Pennsylvania in search of new skills to compete for the kind of high quality, high-tech jobs available in today’s global economy,” said Senator Casey.
“This grant allows our region to grow and develop critical partnerships with employers by addressing the mismatch of workforce skills and the employees that are needed for an advanced manufacturing economy in Southwestern Pennsylvania,” said WIB Executive Director Bill Thompson.
Senator Casey wrote a letter of support to urge the Department of Labor to approve the grant for WIB in August, citing the grant’s potential to help companies in Westmoreland and Fayette Counties train workers for occupations such as mechanical engineering and computer programming.
WIB will use the grant to provide Pennsylvanians with education, training and job placement assistance for occupations and industries for which employers are using H-1B visas to hire foreign workers. WIP aims to prepare individuals for in-demand positions critical to advanced manufacturing.
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