WARREN — In its efforts to align education and training to community and business needs, the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College (NPRC) has recently been approved by two state agencies to provide educational programs in water treatment, wastewater treatment and emergency medical services.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approved the regional college on July 1 to be a DEP training sponsor. With the approval, the college will offer certificate programs and continuing education in water treatment and wastewater treatment.
Like many industries, these community utilities are experiencing shortages of trained personnel to work at water treatment and waste water treatment centers. The need for trained personnel is especially serious in rural regions of the state. Managers and operators of regional water and wastewater authorities are providing input into the educational programs before the college offers its first courses this fall.
Approval came on July 3 from the Pennsylvania Department of Health to provide emergency medical services (EMS) training. This allows the college to provide emergency medical responder (EMR) and emergency medical technician (EMT) classes and emergency medical services continuing education.
The first EMS course will most likely be an 80-hour emergency medical responder course during the fall 2019 term.
The Workforce Development Division of the college will rely on the college’s interactive television delivery model to provide the training to various sites in the college’s service area. The model allows communities with smaller numbers of interested students to collectively receive the training.
A third, now pending, application was submitted by NPRC to the Pennsylvania Department of Education to be an approved nurse aide training and competency evaluation program provider. With the anticipated approval of this program, it will help address an urgent need for nurse aides in long-term care and other facilities who rely on nurse aides to provide quality healthcare services.
Northern Pennsylvania Regional College offers affordable and accessible post-secondary education options to a nine-county region: Cameron, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, McKean, Potter, Venango and Warren. In addition to associate degrees in business administration, criminal justice, early childhood education/early intervention, and interdisciplinary studies, they offer workforce and professional training in industrial technology and commercial drivers licensing.
Workforce development programs in emergency medical services, water treatment, and waste water treatment will be available this fall. Customized training for businesses is also available. For more information on NPRC, a two-year community college-like option in this region, visit https://regionalcollegepa.org.
