Educators detail programs, financing, resources available to regional students

CANFIELD

Whether students are going to college or to careers after high school, there are key resources available here to prepare them, school board members from Mahoning County learned Wednesday.

The Mahoning County Educational Service Center invited board members from throughout the county to the Bistro at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center for the annual county boards of education meeting.

After a meal prepared by MCCTC culinary students, they listened to Eric Karmecy, Oh-Penn Pathways to Competitiveness Project, talk about steering students toward manufacturing jobs and what resources are available to help.

Laura Meeks, president of Eastern Gateway Community College, also talked about the importance of the college in not only providing two-year degrees, but as a stepping-stone to a four-year college education.

Manufacturing jobs of today are not the dirty, noisy, dangerous jobs of the past, Karmecy pointed out.

The mills have been replaced by workplaces with a strong emphasis on safety and technology.

The area has a serious shortage in skilled production workers, he also pointed out.

There’s great pay, he said, in careers that include mechanical engineers, machinists, welders, fabricators and tool and die workers.

The Oh-Penn workforce region includes Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Lawrence and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania. It has a work force of 368,488 people.

Read more about the meeting in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.