Where do you work and what are your responsibilities? I work at Ventana US, a Custom Vinyl Window Manufacturer in Export. PA. My responsibilities as Administrative Manager are Accounting, Finance, IT- Human Resources and Purchasing.

Why did you agree to serve on the WIB? To gain knowledge of how training money from the State is being spent. To have input in the training of future employees.

What unique perspective do you bring to the WIB? Hands on knowledge of Human Resources. An employer’s perspective of what is needed in the manufacturing industry.

BattleBots IQ (BBIQ) is an educational program created by the producers of the wildly successful BattleBots television series in which homemade, remote controlled robots face-off in competition. It soon became evident that this activity, the sport of robots in competition, had the unique potential to impact middle school, high school and college students in a powerful and positive way. Through the process of robot building, student's imaginations are captured as they design, build and compete with their own robotic creations; and through this hands-on effort students gain practical knowledge of math, science, engineering and manufacturing.

Seeing the impact of Battlebots IQ in other parts of the US, a group of manufacturers and educators got together to explore the idea of a BattleBots IQ program in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The WIB funded training for instructors from six local technical schools and provided staff support to the local committee and event.

Saturday, May 13, was the day. After months of preparation, seven Battlebots from five area technical schools gathered at the Westmoreland Mall to see who was the best. Teams began arriving at 8:00 am and nine hours later, it was official. The Battlebot ILA, created by the Lenape Warriors of Lenape Tech was the winner.

The participating schools were:

  Northern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center
  Lenape Tech
  Eastern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center
  Central Westmoreland Career and Technology Center
  Forbes Road Career and Technology Center

For more information about BattleBots IQ in Southwestern PA, visit www.battlebotsiqpa.org.

Lee Fairman of Vandergrift received the Governor’s Achievement Award for Youth at the Pennsylvania Partners Employment, Training & Education Conference held May 10—12 in Hershey, PA.

Lee is a student at Kiski Area School District and employed full-time as a Certified Nurse’s Assistant. But his most important job is that of father to two-year-old daughter Summer.

According to the staff at the Career Directions program in Westmoreland County, Lee cheerfully took these responsibilities after completing Pregnant and Parenting Child Care Training. This program is funded by the Westmoreland-Fayette Workforce Investment Board.

In 2003, Lee was a homeless high-school dropout who was using and selling drugs. With Summer’s birth in September of that year, he began to turn his life around, returning to ninth grade and entering PACT’s Early Fatherhood Initiative program in November.

During the next school year, Lee found work in the laundry room of a nursing home but quickly settled on nursing as his chosen profession. With this goal in mind, Lee entered the Health Service Shop at the Northern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center.

By last October, Lee had completed enough training to sit for the state-certified nurse’s assistant exam. He passed which earned him a promotion from the laundry room at the nursing home.

The staff at the Career Directions program have nothing but admiration for this dedicated student, employee and father who stops to call his little girl each night when he can’t be with her at bedtime.

Job Ready Pennsylvania is designed to align local workforce spending with high priority industries and occupations and tie all education and training funding to employer needs. An April 2004 report entitled Pennsylvania’s Targeted Industry Clusters defines 18 industry clusters.

The Westmoreland-Fayette WIB from the beginning has looked to identify key industry clusters and occupations in the local workforce investment area. In 2003, an industry cluster analysis was commissioned by the WIB. The study examined the employment characteristics of 29 industry clusters. Five of these 29 industry clusters were designated by the WIB as “clusters of emphasis” and were examined in greater detail.

In 2005 the WIB determined that the study needed to be updated so that local high priority industries and occupations were identified. The update looked at the 18 clusters identified by the state and, again, five key industry clusters were examined in greater detail. These five industry clusters are (1) Advanced Materials and Diversified Manufacturing; (2) Business and Financial Services; (3) Life Sciences; (4) Building and Construction; and (5) Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation.

Perhaps the most important enhancement of this study relative to the October 2003 Report is the inclusion of employment projections through 2010 for the five key industry clusters. These projections were calculated using a mix of historical data acquired from the CWIA Regional Data Analysis Tool (RDAT) database, as well as from employment projections made by the CWIA.

In comparison to the rest of southwest Pennsylvania and of Pennsylvania as a whole, the local economy has a higher unemployment and a lower average annual wage. This is particularly true for Fayette County, which has the highest unemployment rate and the second lowest per capita personal income in the nine-county southwest Pennsylvania region.

The local economy experienced higher employment growth between 1995 and 2004 than the rest of southwest Pennsylvania and of Pennsylvania as a whole. Again, this is particularly true for Fayette, which experienced employment growth of 12.8% between 1995 and 2004, compared with 5.4% for southwest Pennsylvania and 8.8% for all of Pennsylvania. Overall, the local economy is projected to experience employment growth of 3.1% between 2004 and 2010.

The entire report can viewed on the WIB’s website www.westfaywib.org. Click on the Other Resources tab and then click on Industry Cluster Analysis Update.

Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities.

Equal Opportunity Employer Program.