Gov. Tom Wolf recently attended the Phase II groundbreaking ceremony for the Shell Center for Process Technology Education at the Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) where he congratulated the college on its efforts to provide training and vowed to build the strongest workforce in the nation.
“When you have a project like the Shell Ethylene Cracker Plant that has the potential to create more than 100,000 direct and indirect jobs, you need to find ways to train the workforce, and collaborative efforts like this between education providers and employers are one of the best ways to do that,” Gov. Wolf said.
Last year, CCBC received a $1 million gift from Shell and a $1 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to help fund the Phase II addition to the center. The Pennsylvania Department of Education provided a matching $2 million grant to support the construction for which the recent groundbreaking ceremony took place.
The college’s four-semester associate in applied science program in process technology trains students to process technicians. These professionals set up, operate, monitor and control advanced manufacturing facilities and processes. The program prepares students for careers in chemical, petrochemical, nuclear power and steel manufacturing.