PVCC workforce center gets on track

Piedmont Virginia Community College announced this morning that it has begun work on a facility that will soon greatly expand the college’s job training for out-of-work Charlottesville-area residents.

“This is critically important today,” said PVCC President Frank Friedman, noting that the region has seen its unemployment rate nearly double in the past year. “We must put unemployed Central Virginians back to work.”

PVCC’s new workforce development center will be located in the Route 20 visitors’ center that was operated by Monticello and the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Piedmont had hoped to receive the state’s approval to take ownership of the building in late April, but the project faced unanticipated delays while the state conducted its legal and technical review of the building.

The college had hoped to begin offering classes in the facility this fall, but now it will not open until March 1.

Valerie Palamountain, PVCC’s dean of workforce services, said the new center will allow the college to expand its capacity by six-fold. Once fully operational, she said, PVCC will be able to increase its number of workforce training students from 5,000 to 30,000.

“We’re looking to provide better service to the community and to industry,” she said.