PAsmart Industry Partnership, a state Department of Education program, has provided funding for employee training at Electro Soft, a Montgomeryville manufacturing firm. Gene Marks reported the details in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The challenge of finding and keeping employees in the post-COVID era was one of the underpinnings of the PAsmart program. It covers up to 75 percent of costs (using matched funds) related to a very broadly defined array of professional skill-building coursework.

Karla Trotman, CEO of Electro Soft, said she has used the grant money to:

• Bolster employees’ English skills
• Instruct in the intricacies of the supply chain
• Improve high-level management and leadership techniques
• Sharpen technical-writing abilities
• Hire consultants to provide training on the operation of machinery specific to her industry

Further, Trotman says the use of grant funds for these purposes has freed her budgets elsewhere.

“Because of this program, we’ve cut our training budget in half,” she said. “It’s opened up opportunities for us to bring on more people because as we’ve ‘upskilled’ our existing workers we can hire less skilled people at the entry level,” she said.

“It’s been an amazing way for us to expand our workforce.”

Additional details on this resource — including the PAsmart Industry Partnership link – are at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Upskilling in manufacturing is especially vital.