A group of community colleges and other organizations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, will work together to build up the regional workforce in energy and advanced manufacturing. The Tristate Energy and Advanced Manufacturing Consortium, or TEAM, was initiated by the Community College of Beaver County, but includes 10 community colleges throughout a three state, 27-county footprint. TEAM is also made up of many other stakeholders, including economic development organizations, businesses, nonprofits, philanthropic organizations and workforce development boards.
TEAM members will work together to ensure students across the area have the proper training, certifications, and pathways to fill the jobs generated by the booming energy industry. These groups will collaborate three times annually and play their own role in making TEAM successful.
For example, educational institutions have the responsibility of developing a flexible training model and educating the local youth on the opportunities the industry can provide. They also will work together to implement a stackable-credentials model that will allow students to work with multiple institutions to build their experience and education. Energy companies and foundations have also invested in TEAM, knowing that these positions need to be filled, and that workforce development is crucial to the cause.
Over the next decade there will be 100,000 job openings in energy and advanced manufacturing. TEAM is exactly the kind of program that the energy industry needs in order to fill those jobs, quickly and adequately. Workforce development is vital to the success of the energy industry that continues to grow.