Montgomery County Community College’s Workforce Development Division encourages eligible Montgomery County companies to apply for Workforce and Economic Development Network of Pennsylvania (WEDnetPA) funding for the new fiscal year which began July 1, 2022.

WEDnetPA is a state training reimbursement grant program where eligible companies can receive state grants to help pay for workforce training.  As a WEDnetPA partner, MCCC administers and distributes funding to Montgomery County companies to help them defray the costs of workforce training. MCCC’s Workforce Development Division works with companies to develop customized training that is specifically designed to meet their needs.

Last year, MCCC assisted more than 20 area companies in training their workforce, which helped them to invest in growth and increase their overall competitive advantage. Some examples of MCCC’s customized training include:

• Vision alignment with senior executives to facilitate communication of a shared vision across all company levels, which helped to improve the employee retention rate for a clinical supply organization
• Project Management skills for banking staff
• Communication skills for functional area leaders
• DISC assessments and leadership for a pharmaceutical supply chain company that improved inter-departmental communications
• Lean Training that enabled an entire company to adopt a lean approach to business; the coach helped to implement process improvements, reducing wasted steps within an office environment
• OSHA 10, Electrical Safety and OSHA 30 for a manufacturing company in the clinical supply chain of pharmaceuticals
• Leadership training for more than 20 leaders of a well-known, retail establishment in Montgomery County that resulted in process improvements
• Viscosity, percentages, and math training for the staff of a manufacturing company that creates films used in various applications.
• Utilization of PowerPoint, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and other tools by mid-sized organizations that created a more efficient document sharing process and created standard operating procedures

“This list is only a sample of what MCCC’s Workforce Training Division can do to help companies with their training needs,” said Bernadette DeBias, MCCC’s Director of Workforce Development, who manages WEDnetPA grants for MCCC. “We can provide customized training in-person or virtually for companies via our qualified trainers, who are not only excellent teachers and subject-matter experts, but who also work in the industry and are proficient in identifying company needs and creating training solutions.”

Currently, MCCC has approximately $69,000 of remaining WEDnetPA funds for 2022-2023. Eligible industries include manufacturing, healthcare (certain restrictions apply), information technology, and any company with a commercial/industrial client base. Retail companies are not eligible.

“In today’s environment, where it is difficult to find and retain qualified talent, it is more important than ever to invest in training your workforce,” said DeBias. “Through the WEDnetPA grant, we can help our Montgomery County companies offset the cost of that training.”

To apply for WEDnetPA funding grants, companies should begin to submit applications now for the new fiscal year, which is underway. Companies can submit training plans for the entire fiscal year, from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, said DeBias.

Anyone interested in learning more about WEDnetPA and the application process, should contact Bernadette DeBias (bdebias@mc3.edu) or Katina Faulk (kfaulk@mc3.edu) to discuss eligibility, process, and training plans.