Fourth Annual Workforce Summit and Carrer Fair Landed Success The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce and its workforce development affiliate, Skills in Scranton, hosted the SKILLS 2024: Workforce Summit & Career Fair. The event was held at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel and served as a platform for connecting high school students, job seekers, and regional employers, facilitating invaluable networking opportunities and fostering career development and pathways education. Lackawanna County was the main event sponsor. The SKILLS 2024 event hosted more than 100 high school seniors looking for employment upon graduation, career pathways exploration, and the opportunity to engage with industry professionals. Additionally, the Summit drew numerous job seekers from across the region, all seeking employment opportunities, with the 50 regional employers in attendance. Scranton School Board President Ty Holmes shared, “The Workforce Summit and Career Fair is a great resource for high school students. I heard one student say, “I didn’t know this…” and it was in reference to a student talking with an employer about their career options.” “We were pleased to have been able to add unique elements to this year’s Workforce Summit. Public employment resources, access to regional workforce data, and connections to students from area high schools added to the core components of the job fair, with over 50 local employers on hand,” shared Robert Durkin, president of The Chamber. Throughout the day, attendees had the chance to interact with representatives from a diverse array of industries, including technology, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and more. Employers showcased their organizations, shared information about available job opportunities, and engaged in meaningful conversations with prospective candidates. The SKILLS 2024: Workforce Summit & Career Fair not only provided attendees with a platform to connect and network but also featured informative sessions on topics such as resume writing, interview skills, and professional development. Keynote speaker Teri Ooms, president and CEO of The Institute, paved the way for attendees and employers to learn about the status of the workforce. Identify pros and cons; Ooms shared the research The Institute has done to evaluate top-priority careers and the shortage of workers vs. employers. As the event concluded, both employers and attendees expressed enthusiasm about the connections made and the opportunities presented. The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce and Skills in Scranton look forward to building on this success and continuing to support workforce development initiatives in the region.
Johnson College Offering Computer Information Technology Course to Scranton School District High School Students Johnson College is now enrolling high school students from the Scranton School Districts into a 15-week Computer Information Technology course starting January 18, 2022. The course will be held Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. on the Johnson College campus in Scranton, PA. The course costs $500 per student and includes tuition and books. Space is limited. The introduction of JAVA is presented in this course so that students can design and develop dynamic object-oriented programming projects. Some of the topics include inheritance, decision structures, arrays, and the creation of classes using data objects. The languages used to implement object-oriented content are C# and C++. In addition, this course helps to demonstrate strategies and prepare models that can be used as a project foundation so that advanced tools can be further applied to construct application software contents. For more information and to register, contact the Johnson College Enrollment Department at 570-702-8856 or enroll@johnson.edu.
Payroll Preparation Tax Calculator The City of Scranton and Scranton School District have taken steps to eliminate the Business Privilege and Mercantile (BPM) taxes for 2022, in favor of a Payroll Preparation Tax (PPT). While only select businesses are subject to the BPM taxes, the PPT will be applied more broadly to entities doing business in the City of Scranton. By law, this transition must be revenue neutral – which means neither taxing body can generate more total revenue than what is collected under the BPM from the previous year. For some businesses this will result in a decrease in tax liability, while others will see an increase. If fully approved, beginning in January 2022, the PPT will be imposed on a percentage of a business’s total payroll—at a rate of 0.002786775 by the City and 0.008064 by the School District. Likewise, all BPM liabilities will be eliminated. Learn more about the details of this proposed action here. To estimate your anticipated PPT liability, use the calculator below.* PPT Tax Calculator *Please note, calculator is for estimation purposes only.
