Did You Know?
10 New Facts about Wall Street West Projects
With more than 60 ongoing programs funded by Wall Street West throughout the ten-county region, following all the workforce development and education success stories can be difficult. In an effort to keep you up-to-date, here is a sample of some of our most recent accomplishments:
- Since receiving Wall Street West funding, the Northeast Pennsylvania Manufacturers Council’s “Your Employment Skills (YES) Certificate Program” is now offered to high school students at Crestwood School District; Pine Grove School District; Hazleton Area School District; North Schuylkill School District; Shenandoah Valley School District; Tamaqua Area School District; and Schuylkill Intermediate Unit. Since 2008, graduation from the YES program in the region has increased by 105%.
- 44 students have been placed at 32 different companies through the Wall Street West’s KIZ Collaborative Internship and Graduate Assistantship Program, which includes the Pocono Mountains KIZ; the Greater Reading KIZ; the Lackawanna County KIZ; the Luzerne County KIZ and the Southside Bethlehem KIZ.
- The Incumbent Worker Training Program, managed by the Wall Street West region’s five Workforce Investment Boards, has been utilized by 51 regional employers and has helped train over 800 current employees of Northeastern Pennsylvania businesses.
- Through Misericordia University’s Wall Street West projects, 100 teachers from 80 school districts have completed training in techniques to better teach financial literacy; and 25 new executives-in-residence from the local business community are now an active part of financial services programs for high schools and university education.
- The Lehigh Career and Technical Institute’s “Pathways to an Engineering Career” program, funded by Wall Street West, has allowed high school students to job shadow with the following organizations:
Nestle
Purina
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.
Barry Isett & Associates
B Braun USA
PPL
Benchmark Engineering
Just Born
Lutron
- Through InterviewNEPA, a partnership between Wall Street West and InterviewStream, a total of 55 locations in Northeastern Pennsylvania – including universities, high schools, and PA CareerLinks offices – have integrated online video interviewing into their career resources for practice interviewing and pre-screening candidates. Additionally, in August, approximately 500 jobseekers and 45 employers used the platform for a virtual career fair hosted by the Northeast Pennsylvania Employment Consortium.
- The Internship Institute has developed an Internship eToolKit, which helps businesses formalize an internship structure to help avoid common problems; provide an experience-based methodology to manage an internship program more efficiently and effectively; and focus on intern productivity to help employers fully utilize students’ capabilities.
- Wall Street West funding has enabled the Transferable Occupation Relationship Quotient (TORQ) software to be available in all of the region’s PA CareerLinks offices. This unique platform allows individuals to identify what types of jobs they are currently qualified for, as well as what training / education would be needed to become qualified for other jobs.
- Through the Business Information Systems project at Northampton Community College, the school has been able to award more than $187,000 in scholarships to students in business, finance and STEM programs.
- With Wall Street West funding for the Enterprise Resource Planning Program, The University of Scranton will be launching the ERP Certificate Program in January 2010. This curriculum is one of the very few online programs in ERP with graduate level credits and consultant certification by the System Analysis and Program Development (SAP).
- Wall Street West is a not-for-profit partnership in Northeastern Pennsylvania that is enhancing the financial services, information technology, healthcare and related industries in the commonwealth through strategic workforce development and state-of-the-art economic development. Wall Street West is made up of the top-tier economic development agencies; technology investment groups; workforce development organizations; education and research institutions; and private sector companies in the region. With oversight from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Wall Street West has federal support through a $15 million Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor for education and job training.
