A group of 20 employees — including floor managers, bakery managers, front-end managers, HR generalists, and warehouse directors — from The GIANT Co. and Bake Crafters recently completed a certification program that provides agribusiness workers with new skills.
Skills participants learned include forecasting and increasing supply efficiencies, increasing sales, asset protection, and how to become stronger, more inclusive leaders.
The program is a partnership between GIANT Bake Crafters, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, Shippensburg University, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Foundation, HACC, SCPa Works, and the South Central Workforce Investment Board.
The PASSHE Foundation and a $250,000 Industry Partnership Grant support the program.
“The knowledge that these 20 individuals gained through this experience will serve them for the rest of their careers,” Jennifer Berrier, Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry secretary, said when she visited a Harrisburg-area grocery store to celebrate. “A worker who possesses a skill set that employers need is a worker who can reliably earn a competitive wage in a job they like and with an employer who treats them well.”
The Industry Partnership funding will be used to expand the partnership, recruit new employees into the agribusiness industry, incorporate key career-readiness activities that help participants’ socioeconomic mobility and career growth, and offer the leadership program opportunity to additional employees.
Twenty to 30 more students will begin the program later this summer.