Pa. lawmakers hear of lives changed by Tec Centro in Lancaster

• By Lisa Scheid/LNP | LancasterOnline

Pennsylvania lawmakers visited one of Lancaster city’s two Tec Centro centers Thursday to learn how this locally developed, fast-growing model to scale bilingual workforce development is taking hold in other third-class cities in the state.

Founded in 2014 through the Spanish American Civic Association, Tec Centro is a bilingual job-training initiative that aims to help people develop skills to obtain jobs with family-sustaining wages. The model, which includes support to remove barriers to training, has been adopted in Reading and Lebanon. Centers in York and Harrisburg are on track to open this year.

Legislators from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Democratic Central Pennsylvania Delegation and Latino Caucus visited the Lancaster city center at 651 High St. that opened in 2021 on Thursday. The other city center at 102 Chester St. opened in 2014.

Tec Centro received a $250,000 grant from Truist Foundation in November and $500,000 in pandemic relief funds through the county in August 2023.

The Tec Centro Workforce Network, currently made up of six locations in Berks, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties, is the primary provider of bilingual education and skills training. Each location operates independently and creates strategic educational partnerships throughout the community to leverage public and private funding. They collaborate with area community colleges and training programs to provide skill training that leads to careers in high-demand areas.

Here are two takeaways from the tour and discussion:

1. Tec Centro changes lives, speakers tell legislators.

As a young man, Frank Bailey III recalled walking past Mars Wrigley candy factory near Elizabethtown and thinking he could never attain a job there, a place where workers stay so long that they retire from it. On Thursday, he told legislators how he came to Tec Centro, without a high school diploma, and having been incarcerated. He took the six-month program that gave him the foundation for a career in industrial maintenance, a highly in-demand career, and graduated in December. He now works at that factory he used to walk by. He urged the legislators to continue to support Tec Centro, which helped him overcome barriers with its wide range of services.

“This can change anybody’s life,” Bailey said, adding that he took the opportunities and support and put in the work to obtain his goal.

The legislators also heard from two mothers from Reading, Jatzia Vega, 22, and Priscilla Valerio, 33, who studied at Reading’s Tec Centro affiliate to become certified nursing assistants.

Valerio spoke about how she worked in restaurants and stores and struggled to make ends meet. Further training seemed out of reach, but she learned Tec Centro was not expensive and she could study while her children were in school. Now she is looking at how to continue her training to become a licensed practical nurse and then a registered nurse.

Vega spoke about how her relationship with Berks Tec Centro Executive Director Violet Emory inspired her to continue studies when she learned she was pregnant. She works with Valerio at the Highlands at Wyomissing retirement community, Berks County, and plans to become a registered nurse once she completes a general education diploma.

State Rep. Jordan Harris, a democrat serving District 186 in Philadelphia County, congratulated the Tec Centro graduates, and said their life changing choices would affect their children and their children’s children.

2. Tec Centro offers a different kind of model, leaders say.

Tec Centro’s model of holistic, community-based workforce development is a critical strategy for combating persistent poverty in marginalized communities, according to state Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El, a Democrat serving District 49 in Lancaster County, who hosted the tour and discussion.

He asked Tec Centro leaders to explain how the model is different from other workforce development.

Adult learners on average pay about $100 for their program while the full cost is underwritten by the center through a combination of charitable dollars, government grants and support, Neighborhood Assistance program, and philanthropy. Tec Centro in Lancaster has a waiting list of 1,500, said Marlyn Barbosa, chief workforce development officer for SACA.

The training doesn’t have income limits unlike programs that look back over a previous year’s pay to determine if someone is eligible, said Rafael Torres, who leads the Lebanon Tec Centro affiliate Working to Empower People for Advancement.

In addition to bilingual education, Tec Centro also has support specialists called Career Navigators to remove barriers such as transportation, essential skills, resume and interview preparation. Classes are available when people can take them.