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| navigate: home: magazine: spring/summer 2000: article | |
| Reaching Out News Briefs | ||||||
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Small business beat Y2K with PENNTAP assistance by Barbara Hale Thanks to Penn State’s statewide technical outreach network, the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PENNTAP), small companies throughout the state were ready for the challenges of Jan. 1, 2000. For months, Ralph Caretti, PENNTAP senior technical specialist, supplied direct, hands-on Y2K readiness assistance, free of charge, including testing computer hardware and software, installing software patches and preparing customized reports of specific compliance recommendations. PENNTAP worked with 120 companies in 34 Pennsylvania counties. “Going in, I didn’t find a company that was 100 percent compliant,” Caretti said. “Going out, if the company followed through on the recommendations, they’d be as ready as they can be.” Rodney Kelley is director of information services at Unimart Inc. headquarters in State College, Pa. He says he started getting the convenience food store chain ready for Y2K back in 1997. Still, when Caretti came in to check, he brought a number of additional issues to Kelley’s attention. “None were critical problems, but someone had to ascertain the fact that the remaining issues weren’t critical,” Kelley said. “We are a public company and, as a result, need to be sure that we will not have any significant disruptions to our business. Thanks to Ralph, we are now.” Kimberly Bauer, quality systems manager at Contact Technologies Inc., an electrical contact manufacturer in St. Marys, Pa., had never worked with a PENNTAP technical service specialist before. “We heard about Ralph and the Y2K assistance from our area’s Industrial Research Center,” Bauer said. “It would have cost us approximately $1,500 to have our custom programmer review all of our systems. Ralph’s help was free. Ralph also had more access to information about our commercial software than our programmer. He knew which versions are compliant and which ones are not. The time savings were tremendous.” Jack Gido, PENNTAP director, noted, “In our ongoing evaluation surveys, clients reported economic benefits of $630,000 and 27 jobs saved as a direct result of PENNTAP Year 2000 assessments. Clients also reported 99 percent satisfaction with this service.” Ron Karschner, information systems manager at Coastal Aluminum Rolling Mills Inc. in Lycoming County, pointed out that he called Caretti in “as a reassurance thing.” Karschner had taken steps a year ago to standardize the company software. Caretti came in and checked the software and hardware on the company’s 35 workstations and some of the PCs that work with shop equipment. “It only took Ralph eight hours, because he had all of the resources at his fingertips,” Karschner noted. “I would have had to do a lot more digging.” Christine Noel, assistant controller at Champion Chevrolet, a new and used automotive dealership in York County, also called on Caretti for reassurance. Unlike Karschner, she is not a computer specialist. “We did a good bit on our own,” Noel said, “but Ralph provided the reassurance that a more qualified person verified what we had done and made recommendations for additional things that needed to be done. I think we’re Y2K compliant now and have 95 percent of our issues covered.” PENNTAP is a federal-state-university partnership for economic development, serving Pennsylvania since 1965. PENNTAP helps Pennsylvania businesses improve their competitiveness by providing free technology assistance and information to help resolve specific questions or problems that can be addressed in a limited amount of time. For further information about PENNTAP, contact Jack Gido at (814) 865-0427.
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Your County career fair Eighth-grade students from York County schools learned about career opportunities in business, manufacturing and construction, communications and art, science and technology, and health and human services during the 1999 York County Eighth-Grade Career Fair. These photos show students listening to presentations by business representatives and filling out questionnaires during the three-day event. Staff members from Penn State Cooperative Extension’s York County Office assisted in planning the career fair. More than 4,500 eighth-grade students from 14 school districts in York County attended the York County Eighth-Grade Career Fair held at the York Expo Center in 1999. The three-day event included more than 300 presentations by business representatives on a wide range of career opportunities. The career fair was sponsored by the York County Alliance for Learning, comprised of school guidance counselors and superintendents and members from community-based organizations, postsecondary schools, labor and business and industry. Earlier in the year, students completed an Interest Inventory to help identify potential career clusters of interest to them, according to Roxanne F. Price, 4-H/youth coordinator for Penn State Cooperative Extension in York County. She chairs the Community-based Organizations Committee for the York County Alliance for Learning and assisted in planning the career fair. A representative from Penn State York also serves on the Community-based Organizations Committee and helped plan the event. The career fair offered information about five career clusters: business, manufacturing and construction, communications and art, science and technology, and health and human services. Each student was able to attend sessions on four different careers.
Wilkes-Barre CE secures $750,000 in job training funds Lord & Taylor Distribution Center, Fabri-Kal Corp. and the Corporate Express Call Center in Wilkes-Barre have been awarded Customized Job Training (CJT) funds totaling more than $750,000 in partnership with Penn State Wilkes–Barre Continuing Education. Ina Lubin, director of Continuing Education, and Jennifer Youngman, Continuing Education representative, report these funds were allocated through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. The Governor’s Action Team and its regional director, Steve Yokimishyn, played a key role in identifying local companies that qualify for Customized Job Training and other state funding. “Customized Job Training grants are one of the methods that Gov. Tom Ridge and his Action Team use to help companies grow and remain competitive,” Youngman said. These funds support business expansion and new business start-ups and also encourage existing businesses to develop and educate their current employees. The funds ensure that Pennsylvania workers develop skills through training that are consistent with current and projected employer demand. The Wilkes–Barre Continuing Education Office worked with the three companies to write the proposals seeking job training funds, Youngman explained. Each company requesting these funds is required by the state to have an educational partner. As the educational partner, Penn State Wilkes–Barre is working closely with the companies to ensure that appropriate training is conducted for the employee groups that need training. “The Customized Job Training grants are a great way for us to start a relationship with a company,” Youngman said. “These companies now see Penn State Wilkes–Barre as a valuable resource and contact us for other educational programming. We’ve been involved with the grant program for 18 months, and we’re excited about the success we’ve achieved.” In addition to providing fiscal oversight for each of the companies awarded funds, the Penn State Wilkes–Barre’s Continuing Education Office also is arranging for customized training for Corporate Express Call Center employees. Penn State Management Development Programs and Services faculty will conduct supervisory development training for Call Center floor managers, and campus faculty will teach computer training to entry-level teleprofessionals, Youngman said.
Penn State Erie evaluates long-distance dads program The Center for Organizational Research and Evaluation (CORE) at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, has received a $145,200 grant to conduct an 18-month evaluation of the Long-Distance Dads program at the State Correctional Institute at Albion, Pa. Funding for the evaluation comes from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency in Harrisburg, Pa. Long-Distance Dads is a 12-week educational program designed to help men in prison develop skills to become better fathers. The program’s concept was developed by Dr. Randall Turner, who heads the Father’s Workshop of the Erie School District’s Family Center. “Long-Distance Dads is currently in use by seven other prisons in Pennsylvania,” said Dr. Kimberly Skarupski, associate director of CORE, assistant professor of psychology at Penn State Erie and lead investigator in the evaluation project. “It is being considered for use across the country. The results of CORE’s evaluation will be important as other areas consider adopting the program.” Participants in Long-Distance Dads meet weekly in small groups that are facilitated by peer leaders—other prisoners who have been trained to facilitate discussions. Worksheets are used in each group session to encourage fathers to consider questions of moral character and to develop skills that help them become more involved and supportive fathers. After 12 weeks, participants graduate and receive a certificate of attendance. The evaluation will have four phases: interviews with prison staff, interviews with program participants, observation of the small groups and a review of written records to make sure that the program and its participants are meeting expectations. In addition to interviews and observation, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency has asked CORE to do a telephone survey of all Pennsylvania prisons to compile a list of other fathering programs. CORE was created in 1998 at Penn State Erie to provide research, evaluation and grant-writing services to social service agencies, health care organizations, educational institutions and industry in northwest Pennsylvania. CORE has the ability to draw on the expertise and experience of world-class faculty and resources throughout the Penn State system.
Miller named to multistate distance education policy board Dr. Gary Miller, associate vice president for distance education and executive director of the Penn State World Campus, has been invited by West Virginia Gov. Cecil H. Underwood to participate in a 15-member advisory board for a multistate Distance Learning Policy Laboratory that is being sponsored by the Southern Regional Education Board, a governor-level board that includes 15 states from Maryland to Texas. The board is undertaking a three-year mission to identify the policy barriers to distance learning and craft policies that states can adopt to reduce or eliminate those barriers. Dr. Roy McTarnaghan, former president of Florida Gulf Coast University, is serving as director of the Distance Learning Policy Laboratory.
 Penn State has an Outreach presence in every county in Pennsylvania. The Wilkes–Barre Area School District is the first Pennsylvania school district to take part in a new collaboration with Penn State Cooperative Extension and Penn State researchers to deliver life skills training to seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders. Christine Tomascik, Luzerne County FL/4-H agent, is the local link between the researchers and the school district. She also is working directly with the school district to implement the multiyear project. The Life Skills Training curriculum is designed to help young adolescents develop skills to resist social pressures to use drugs, resist advertising pressure, build self-esteem, manage anxiety, communicate effectively, develop personal relationships and behave assertively in any pressure situation. The curriculum also offers information about the negative consequences of drug use and its decreasing social acceptability. Dr. Tena St. Pierre, associate professor of agricultural and extension education and senior research associate in Penn State’s Institute for Policy Research and Evaluation, reports that the Life Skills Training program, which will eventually be offered at 10 sites throughout Pennsylvania, is designed to enhance personal and social competence skills, prevent alcohol, tobacco and other drug use and foster positive youth development for students. St. Pierre is principal investigator on the project, which is funded by a five-year $2.3-million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, within the National Institutes of Health. During the first year of the project, only the Wilkes–Barre Area School District is offering the curriculum. Year One also will be used to identify nine other Cooperative Extension/school collaborations across Pennsylvania to take part in the project and to build the collaborative team of extension educators, school personnel and University researchers. Two different types of leaders will conduct the classroom sessions: tenth-grade teen leaders from the participating school district’s high school and an adult leader from the community. Students who participate in grade seven will continue in the program in grades eight and nine. Throughout the program, rigorous evaluation will be conducted to determine which delivery system, teen leader or adult leader, is most effective. Dr. Susan McHale, professor of human development and family studies at Penn State, is providing leadership for the project’s program evaluation. | |||||
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