Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President tours Penn College, highlights workforce impact

Anna Paulson, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President and CEO, toured the different stations inside Penn College of Technology’s Welding Program.

Paulson is touring the campus to see and learn more about the college’s economic impact on Pennsylvania’s workforce.

“Penn College serves as a magnet. We have over 4,000 industry partners; we’re always working closely with our industry partners. If you look at the talent of our faculty and our staff and so it just becomes a really great opportunity to share our expertise to hopefully help provide the information for our Federal Reserve Bank,” said Michael Reed, Penn College of Technology President.

Paulson is touring and visiting communities throughout Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania to get an idea of the current state of the local economy.

“For her to be able to see the entire operation, from how we’re supporting workforce development and the 5,000 incumbent workers that we’re routinely training to the amount of graduates that we’re producing for key areas of growth in our economy and then also even just the exposure that we’re providing now to our high school students,” said Reed.

Before the tour, Paulson met with local business leaders, hearing their concerns and issues within the workforce.

“When we talk to businesses, often they talk about finding qualified employees is challenging; that’s one of the barriers for us to expand, and you know, here they’re creating the workforce that they need, and so I think that’s important to see that in action and to connect all of those dots,” said Anna Paulson, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President and CEO.

The relationship between local partners and the college is what stood out the most to Paulson, reaching out to local partners to get the equipment students need, so they’re successful and ready to enter the workforce once they graduate.

“They need the cutting-edge things that are going to be used on the job; they can’t have the high school lab that you know has what people used 20 years ago, so it seems like it takes a lot of partnership and ingenuity to keep that all kind of moving along at the same pace,” said Paulson.