Skills in Scranton

Skills in Scranton, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, is the business-education partnership of The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce.

The organization has created and nurtured several community partnerships to respond to regional challenges such as skill shortages and workforce training needs. The partnerships have been designed to help students, educators, employers and employees compete and succeed in a technologically challenging global marketplace.

Programs sponsored by Skills in Scranton include Community Reading Day, during which members of the local business community visit second-grade students, read a book and donate it to the classroom’s library; Tomorrow’s Leaders Today, an initiative to help high school juniors build upon their innate leadership skills as they serve the community; and an annual job fair to match job seekers with employers and to promote awareness of job opportunities in the Scranton area.

Recently, the organization has turned its focus to promoting career awareness in the up-and-coming fields of electronics, health care and financial/information technology. Skills in Scranton also strives to retain 18- to 35-year-old employees in the region, recognizing them as vital parts of eastern Pennsylvania’s workforce.