From left to right: Michael J. Rounds, President, Williamson College of the Trades; Courtney Fasnacht, Executive Director, Northeast PA Manufacturers & Employers Council; Greg Moreland, Pennsylvania State Director, National Federation of Independent Business
The Northeast PA Manufacturers & Employers Council’s Executive Director, Courtney Fasnacht, recently sat on a workforce development panel held at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Camp Hill.
The conference is the premiere gathering of public policy conservatives each year in the Keystone State. It is the largest and longest running of the state-based conservative conferences regularly attracting a long list of elected officials, scholars, journalists, and activists for two days of speeches, panel presentations, workshops, and networking.
Panel moderator Greg Moreland, Pennsylvania State Director, National Federation of Independent Business, and Mike Rounds, President, Williamson College of the Trades, joined Fasnacht on stage for the panel entitled The Value of Work. The discussion centered around the current labor crisis and the lack of applicants that businesses are experiencing across the Commonwealth.
“The pandemic made an already existing issue even worse, creating an extremely tight labor market,” said Fasnacht. “Combating the out-migration of our youth, the importance of essential skills regardless of an individual’s career path, and focusing on flexibility in funding industry-driven workforce development programs and local partnerships is imperative. The panel was an opportunity to highlight the Council’s hands-on initiatives as economic uncertainty persists and it allowed for best practices to be shared.”
The conference was aired live by PCN and can be found in it’s entirety on the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference’s Facebook page. The Value of Work panel can be found at 2:20:00.
Courtney L. Fasnacht is the Executive Director for the Northeast PA Manufacturers & Employers Council, the 501(c)(3) charitable affiliate of the Northeast PA Manufacturers & Employers Association, which is a non-profit, membership-based organization founded in 1963. Courtney is the lead in identifying, developing, and executing strategic workforce development initiatives for the Council that aligns with its mission to provide programs and services needed to develop a qualified workforce and competitive business community in northeast and south-central PA.
Courtney graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University in 2006. She currently sits on multiple boards and committees within her community, including the National Association of Manufacturers Education and Workforce Policy Committee, St. Luke’s University Health Network Board of Trustees at Miners Campus, Schuylkill Technology Center’s Strategic Planning Committee, and the Luzerne/Schuylkill Workforce Development Board Youth Committee.