The consortium will prepare workers for jobs in the construction and operation of the newly announced Amazon data centers in Salem Twp. and in Falls Twp., Bucks County — investments that promise to inject tens billions of dollars into the region. The other schools involved are Bucks, Lehigh Carbon and Northampton community colleges.
“This approach, under the direction of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges, speaks to how our sector is lockstep with the Governor and General Assembly in moving the Commonwealth forward,” PACCC President Tuesday Stanley said in a news release. “This effort speaks for our larger strategy of Advancing PA though its community colleges.”
The consortium will work to make participating schools’ programs more efficient, allowing them to eliminate equipment redundancies and collaborate more closely. As part of its mission, the consortium will work with the state Board of Higher Education and other state authorities, federal agencies, vocational high schools, and labor unions.
The PACCC news release said the consortium will have “three pillars.”
The first is a “Career & Technology Academy” program that the colleges will offer through partnerships with local career-&-technical center schools, allowing high school students to earn college credits for an education in the skilled trades. The state Department of Education supported these academies with part of the $14 million it awarded through its Dual Credit Innovation Grant program in order to fill crucial trade jobs in critical industries and to benefit students it calls “historically underrepresented in higher education.”
The Career & Technology Academy for Luzerne County Community College was formally launched at a news conference June 4, with college officials celebrating its dual-credit partnership with the Hazleton Area Career Center, West Side Career & Technical Center, and Wilkes-Barre Area Career & Technical Center. Officials mentioned that the academy, which taught 27 students this spring, would have the potential to catalyze growth specifically in the data center industry.
The second pillar of the consortium is the MicroCredential Academy, which offers “online, mobile, and campus based” programs for “upskilling” so workers can become credentialed in critical emerging fields in a shorter time frame than required by traditional programs. The Luzerne County Community College MicroCredential program offers lessons in fields including business administration, information technology, and the skilled trades, with an opportunity to earn credits to an associate’s degree.
The Construction & Trade Pre-Apprenticeship, the third pillar of the consortium, puts the colleges in partnership with Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trade unions to prepare a “pre-apprenticeship pipeline” of students, readying them to enter apprenticeships and help secure them high-paying union jobs.
The enthusiasm from community colleges and labor comes after the revelation of the new data-center investments. Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Monday that Amazon would invest at least $20 billion to build several data-center campuses for cloud-computing and artificial intelligence.
Luzerne County Community College President John Yudichak said in the PACCC news release that colleges like his were uniquely positioned to help Pennsylvanians capitalize on the “technical revolution” the emerging data-center industry would bring.
“There is no sector of higher education better equipped to adeptly respond to the changing workforce development demands of the technological revolution that is driving historic economic growth than Pennsylvania’s community colleges,” Yudichak said.
© 2025 The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.