News

Students use thermal imaging camera to assist with energy conservation

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Two Penn State Greater Allegheny honor students — Erick Froede Jr., an engineering major from Budd Lake, N.J., and Anthony Palocaren Sr., engineering major from West Mifflin — are working with engineering instructor Eric Lipsky on a class project to determine the loss of energy through the existing windows of the Frable building.» Read More...

 Wood-fueled heating system saves company $150,000 per year

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Energy assistance provided by Penn State Outreach unit results in success story

University Park, Pa. — Dillon Floral, located in Bloomsburg, was using fuel oil to heat its greenhouses during the winter months. With the cost of fossil fuels escalating at exorbitant rates, it was becoming very expensive to keep the greenhouses warm enough for year-round flower breeding. The company decided to explore the feasibility of utilizing woody residue being generated by local mills and tree service companies as a potential fuel source. It turned to Penn State's Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP), a unit of Penn State Outreach, for help.» Read More...

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Penn State Outreach targets workforce training programs to state industry clusters

Thursday, February 22, 2007

University Park, Pa.—Penn State Outreach is helping Pennsylvania's workforce remain competitive in many ways. This is another in a series highlighting how faculty and staff are working with industry clusters across the Commonwealth to deliver customized worker training.» Read More...

Penn State researcher testifies on economic development policy

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

University Park, Pa.—The U.S. government needs to move away from an economic development policy mainly focused on solely job creation to a policy that develops high-skill and high-wage jobs requiring more education and training for its citizens, says a Penn State economic geographer. National energy industries may be an area of growth and opportunity for such economic growth. » Read More...

Outreach targets workforce training programs to Pa. industry clusters

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

University Park, Pa.—Penn State Outreach is helping Pennsylvania's workforce remain competitive in many ways. This is another in a series highlighting how faculty and staff are working with industry clusters across the Commonwealth to deliver customized worker training.

Penn State Lehigh Valley is partnering with the Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board Inc. (WIB) and other area organizations to offer a wide range of youth-focused programming to help educate and prepare young people for the workforce, according to Ken McGeary, regional director of Continuing Education and Outreach at Penn State Lehigh Valley. » Read More...

Director of Office of Economic and Workforce Development to retire

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

University Park, Pa.—Jack Gido, director of Penn State's Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), has announced that he will retire from Penn State Outreach on April 1. For nearly 16 years, Gido has spearheaded the University's commitment to enhancing the competitiveness of Pennsylvania industry.

Penn State Vice President for Outreach Craig D. Weidemann, said, "Jack Gido has provided great leadership and service to Penn State and the Commonwealth. He is extremely well-regarded both on campus as well as among the economic and workforce development community across the state. In addition to providing outstanding leadership at PennTAP for many years, he also led the new Office of Economic and Workforce Development to advance Penn State's expertise to impact the economy in the Commonwealth." » Read More...

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Penn State Outreach leads initiative to train health-care workforce

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Industry-driven training programs are designed to improve health care by enhancing the competencies of Pennsylvania's health-care managers

University Park, Pa.—Penn State Outreach is helping Pennsylvania's workforce remain competitive in many ways. This is another in a series highlighting how faculty and staff are working with industry clusters across the Commonwealth to deliver customized worker training.

One in five people in the Commonwealth is over the age of 60. That makes Pennsylvania's aging population the second oldest in the nation. By 2020, the nation's elderly population is expected to double. Caring for this population will require a skilled and educated workforce during a time when health-care worker shortages are expected to accelerate and reach a critical deficit. » Read More...

Program helps Nardone Bros. Pizza educate its workforce

Thursday, November 9, 2006

University Park, Pa.—Making a wide variety of pizzas at Nardone Bros. Pizza's state-of-the-art bakery requires a skilled workforce. Thanks to a new education program designed by Penn State's Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP), employees have the knowledge they need to help satisfy hungry schoolchildren in 35 states and Mexico. The success of this PennTAP-developed program has been recognized with the 2006 Award for Excellence in Workforce Development from the University Economic Development Association (UEDA). » Read More...

Outreach targets workforce training programs to industry clusters

Thursday, November 2, 2006

Lancaster County companies join together to improve workers' skills

University Park, Pa.—Penn State Outreach is helping Pennsylvania’s workforce remain competitive in many ways. This is the first in a series highlighting how faculty and staff are working with industry clusters across the Commonwealth to deliver customized worker training.

In Lancaster County, where more than 11,000 companies employ a workforce of more than 250,000 people, Penn State Outreach units have worked with 11 area manufacturing companies to help them identify training needs and deliver training programs, according to Wesley Donahue, director of Penn State Management Development Programs and Services, an Outreach unit. "Penn State and the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board (WIB) conducted a needs assessment and found similarities in training needs among industry clusters, so we suggested companies band together for training to maximize their workforce training dollars," Donahue said. » Read More...

Energy assessments for small businesses result in significant savings

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Clients of Penn State's Environmental Management Assistance Program recognized

University Park, Pa.—More than half of the recipients of the Environmental Protection Agency's annual Energy Star Small Business Award benefited from a technical support program offered by the Small Business Development Center at Penn State.

The award is presented to small businesses across the nation working to save energy and prevent pollution. This year five of the eight small businesses that received the award were clients of the Small Business Development Center's Environmental Management Assistance Program (EMAP), which performs free and confidential environmental compliance and energy efficiency on-site assessments for small to mid-sized businesses. The clients included: » Read More...

Clients report $52 million in economic benefits as a result of PennTAP help

Thursday, June 15, 2006

With technical assistance, PennTAP helps businesses improve their competitiveness

University Park, Pa.—Sharon Custom Metal Forming, a metal fabricator based in the northwestern region of Pennsylvania, needed to improve its Web presence. The company's Web site had poor search-engine rankings and did not provide measurable benefits. For help, it called on Penn State's Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP). PennTAP helped the client launch a brand new Web site, created by a Pennsylvania IT provider. PennTAP also educated the client on search engine optimization—allowing the client to achieve a better ranking in searches. The company reported $930,000 in economic benefits. » Read More...

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Environmental award recognizes partnership's success

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

University Park, Pa.—A coalition that helped businesses reduce waste and emissions, save energy, save or create more than 400 jobs, and achieve $40 million in economic benefits over five years has won the 2006 Western Pennsylvania Environmental Award in the higher education category.

The Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP), a unit in Penn State Outreach's Office of Economic Development, the Electrotechnology Application Center at Northampton Community College (ETAC) and Penn State McKeesport formed a partnership to provide one-on-one pollution prevention and environmental compliance outreach and technical assistance to help western Pennsylvania businesses go beyond regulatory compliance. » Read More...

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Newsletters

Click here to view the spring 2006 "SBDC News" newsletter.

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Publications

Industry Trends

Cluster Trends

PennTAP Annual Report 2005

Penn State: Your Partner for Economic Growth

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What Our Clients Say

Testimonials/Success Stories

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Past News Releases

State awards University $2.3 million PA CareerLink contract

Thursday, May 4, 2006

University Park, Pa.—PA CareerLink, the state's premier employment network, has chosen Penn State to develop a customized training and credentialing program for more than 1,700 employees across the Commonwealth.

To support this initiative, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry awarded Penn State a $2.3 million contract to develop the PA CareerLink Training and Credentialing Program. Penn State Continuing Education facilities in Abington, Cranberry, DuBois, Harrisburg, Great Valley, Scranton, University Park and Gannon University in Erie, will be delivery sites for the training, which will run through February 2007. » Read More...

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Small Business Development Center promotes business education and opportunities

Friday, April 14, 2006

University Park, Pa.—Making high schoolers aware of the competitive world of business can be a challenge. That's why Penn State's Small Business Development Center has partnered with the Penns Valley Business Network to promote business education and opportunities such as internships to students in the Penns Valley area.

"We see opportunities for the students in the community and would like to get them involved," said Susan Romanini, owner of Wynwood House, an assisted living community in Penns Valley and member of the Penns Valley Business Network. "This can be a win-win situation for both business owners and students." » Read More...

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PENNTAP wins national award for decreasing 'digital divide'

Monday, February 13, 2006

University Park, Pa.—Using the Internet and e-business tools is essential for success for businesses of all sizes, but for small companies, bridging the "digital divide" isn't always easy. Many don't have the resources, the knowledge about technology solutions or the skilled employees to exploit e-business effectively. That's why Penn State's Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PENNTAP) developed the e-business Technical Assistance Program (e-TAP) especially for small- and medium-sized companies. » Read More...

New director named to lead PENNTAP

Wayne Figurelle has been named director of the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PENNTAP).

Since joining PENNTAP in 2001, Figurelle has been program manager for statewide information technology initiatives where he led a network of technical specialists who helped businesses with e-business and Internet-related technology assistance. That initiative was recently honored with an award of excellence from the University Economic Development Association. » Read More...

e-Business program earns UEDA award

"e-Business Technical Assistant Program (e-TAP) Initiative," an accomplishment of the Pennsylvania Technical Assistant Program at Penn State, was awarded the University Economic Development Association's (UEDA) 2005 Award of Excellence in Business Development. The award for the project was presented at the UEDA Summit on Higher Education and Economic Development in Monterey, Calif. » Read More...

Did You Know: PENNTAP provides assistance with Gulf Coast cleanup

Thursday, November 3, 2005

When representatives from the pulp and paper industry in Lake Charles, La., were helping FEMA investigate alternatives to landfilling and burning mountains of tree, brush and building debris caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, they came across an article on desification of wood residues on Penn State's Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PENNTAP) Web site during their research. » Read More...

Penn State receives multi-million dollar grant for plastics training

Thursday, June 9, 2005

Brad Johnson, left, demonstrated the Sumitomo Injection Molding Machine to U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, center, and U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, right. To view more photos, click the image above.

Erie, Pa.—U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao announced on June 3 that the Pennsylvania State Workforce Investment Board, in collaboration with Penn State, will receive a $3.75 million grant from the Department of Labor (DOL) to increase business retention and growth within the plastics industry. The grant, which is in support of the Pennsylvania Plastics Initiative, will provide funding to help link existing and emerging regional initiatives into a broader statewide network to support every facet of the plastics industry's development. » Read More...

PennTAP Annual Reports
Annual Report 2004
Annual Report 2003
Annual Report 2002
Annual Report 2001
Annual Report 2000

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