The origins of what is today known as the Regional Center for Workforce Excellence began in 1976 when the agency was known as the Mercer County Job Training Partnership, headquartered in Clark, Mercer County. The organization operated the State Comprehensive Employment and Training Act programs (CETA), and served Mercer, Lawrence, Clarion, Crawford, Forest, Venango, and Warren counties.

In 1983, Mercer and Lawrence counties divided from the region into their own service area, known as the West Central Job Training Partnership. The current RCWE agency retained the Federal Tax Identification number and changed our name to NPTPC, INC. –Northwest Pennsylvania Training Partnership Consortium, Inc., headquartered in Franklin, Venango County.  Also, in 1983, the State CETA programs became known as the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA).  Our budget was around $3 million with 50 employees serving Clarion, Crawford, Forest, Venango, and Warren counties.

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) was signed into law in 1998, establishing systems that include state and local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) as well as creating one-stop delivery systems, known in Pennsylvania as PA CareerLinks®. Based upon this legislation, the State of Pennsylvania has established a state WIB and 23 regional workforce investment areas in the state operated by local WIBs. The Northwest Pennsylvania WIB  serves a workforce investment area including Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Forest, Venango, and Warren counties and is a membership consortium made up of business executives, community leaders and elected officials appointed by the Board of Commissioners and Chief Local Elected Officials (CLEOs). Erie County, accounting for nearly half of the six county region’s total population, joined the NW WIB in 1999. By 2000, JTPA programs became known as WIA, the system we operate within to this day. 

In 2000, NPTPC separated the Fiscal and Program divisions/staff.  NPTPC was then to serve as a fiscal agent only with approximately 6 employees, and a WIA budget of approximately $6-8 million.  Most staff were transferred to the Greater Erie Community Action Committee’s (GECAC) employment and subcontracted through NPTPC to serve the current six county area with WIA formula funding. By 2000, the WIB was created to take “charge” of the “programmatic details” of contracting out the WIA dollars within our six counties. In 2001, NPTPC created Partners for Performance to subcontract the WIA dollars in Clarion, Crawford, Forest, Venango, and Warren counties (sometimes referred to as the “rurals”). GECAC continued to serve Erie County.

In 2003, NPTPC became the Regional Center for Workforce Excellence, and the Fiscal division moved to Meadville, PA, a central location in the region where the main offices exist today. Since that time, the Regional Center for Workforce Excellence’s budget has grown substantially, and within the past year, we have nearly doubled the number of our staff to nineteen to assist with outreach, fiscal management, administrative, and quality assurance responsibilities.