New-economy jobs don’t look the same everywhere. And the pathways that connect people, skills and employers can’t either.
That lesson was on display late last year in Westmoreland County, a county of roughly 350,000 people just east of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania’s less-populated western half.
One of the most consequential pieces of the effort is located in a former steel town still navigating the long aftermath of industrial collapse.
There, Westmoreland County Community College hosted a Build Back Better Showcase that quietly demonstrated how workforce strategy can span very different places and economic realities within the same county.
The event took place at the college’s Business & Industry Center in Youngwood, highlighting expanded robotics programs, a makerspace and a new composites technology initiative. But one of the most consequential pieces…
