Concentrated job-training program in Lancaster may be a model for all of Pa.

A state job-training center in central Pennsylvania has a new course for manufacturing positions that may soon be implemented throughout the state.

The program, designed to close the “skills gap,” will be short and affordable.

It may also be a model to use throughout the state.

The state job-training center, Pennsylvania Careerlink of Lancaster County is launching a new kind of class that’s two weeks long and combines several types of training.

Enrollees will be able to learn basic math and reading skills, technical know-how, workplace etiquette and communication skills.

U-S Assistant Secretary of Labor Jane Oates says the Lancaster County Careerlink may be pioneering a new type of pre-employment training program, said Jane Oates, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.

“The academics of career readiness, plus the soft skills, plus the pre-vocational training, that’s the three-legged stool,” Oates said. “And I think, probably, every Careerlink has at least two of those legs. I don’t know that anybody has put all three legs together.”

A state Department of Labor and Industry official says it may not be long before the same three-prong approach is used throughout Pennsylvania.

The first class will get under way in mid-June, and the program will be free to enrollees.