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Community College Marcellus ShaleNET Receives $4.9M Federal Grant For Worker Training
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For the first time since the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry began to boom, workers in the multi-state Marcellus Shale footprint will have the opportunity to receive standardized training for employment around this burgeoning energy resource.
Marcellus ShaleNET, a comprehensive recruitment, training, placement and retention strategy for jobs in the Marcellus Shale gas industry is launching thanks to a $4.964M community-based job training grant from the United States Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.
The grant is the largest awarded nationally in this federal funding opportunity.
A consortium of community colleges led by two hubs, Westmoreland County Community College and the Pennsylvania College of Technology, will coordinate the training of interested and qualified workers across 69 counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
Working with the 10-county Pittsburgh region's private sector leadership organization, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and the grant partners have devised a comprehensive network that will allow recruitment and training to build scale quickly while ensuring that individual regions can respond flexibly to ever-changing workforce needs.
Production of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation continues to surge. Drilling in this "super giant" gas field can yield decades of gas production near the major population centers of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, offering workers an exceptional opportunity to earn family-sustaining wages and to build strong career pathways.
"The greater Pittsburgh region holds a key for releasing America from foreign oil dependence with the Marcellus Shale natural gas play. In addition to being one of the cleaner energy sources that's important to a balanced, environmentally sound energy portfolio, this natural gas resource is equally important as a job creator in our region" said U.S. Congressman Tim Murphy, co-chair with Congressman Dan Boren (D-OK) of the bipartisan Congressional Natural Gas Caucus.
Standardized Industry Training Criteria, Job Placement Matching
The hubs will identify and convene relevant and interested training partners in the Marcellus Shale footprint to develop industry-approved criteria for training and certification programs that will ensure the local work force's entry into industry vacancies. These public workforce "One Stops" will utilize a comprehensive talent matching system, working with industry and job seekers to connect candidates with vacancies.
In Demand: ShaleNET Training Answers Employers' Call for Local Residents with the Right Skills
The drilling of a single well requires 400 people working in nearly 150 occupations. Because natural gas extraction is a relatively new industry in the Mid-Atlantic, there aren't enough jobseekers with the specific skills needed to fill available positions, even with higher-than-normal unemployment rate. As a result, much of the current gas drilling workforce is not local. Marcellus ShaleNET can change that.
"We believe that the industry will be hiring thousands of individuals in the foreseeable future to support responsible natural gas extraction. At EQT, we unquestionably want to fill those jobs with individuals who call Appalachia home," said EQT Corporation President and CEO David Porges. "Through the Marcellus ShaleNET program, the training and public workforce systems are going to help develop a large pool of residents uniformly trained to industry standards, but also more attuned to our region's insistence that these activities are conducted in a manner consistent with our community's strict environmental and safety standards. These individuals will be our first choices for high priority, well-paying jobs in an energy economy that's bound to create prosperity for the region and its residents."
Initial Focus on Displaced Workers to Fill Highest Demand Positions
The initial focus will be on linking industry, workforce investment boards, and community college and other training providers to recruit, train and place low income and dislocated workers, as well as veterans, in six high-demand occupations: derrick, rotary drill, and service unit operators; roustabouts; welding and brazing operators; and truck drivers.
For more information about Marcellus ShaleNET, contact James H. Hayes at Westmoreland County Community College, 800-262-2103, ext. 4090 or send email to: hayesj@wccc.edu.
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7/26/2010 |
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