PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Northern Maine Community College and Pathstone are creating a new partnership between the nonprofit and the college.
NMCC and Pathstone are teaming up to provide training to help get more qualified people into the Maine workforce. The program will be focused on more agricultural programs at the beginning, but the plan is to expand the number of programs in the future.
The goal of this partnership is for Pathstone to bring people to the Aroostook County area and pair them with NMCC so that they can receive proper training. This is Pathstone’s area of expertise, as they match migrant and seasonal workers with employers and programs that can give them training and employment opportunities.
“The effort to build a workforce here is important to everybody,” NMCC President Tim Crowley said. “Pathstone is going to help us do some of that work. That would include some training that they can provide, and others that we can provide to those they help bring to the area. It is a great opportunity to collaborate and address the workforce challenges we have here.”
The hope for NMCC and Pathstone is that this training will bring people to the area and properly fill the need for qualified members of the workforce in Aroostook County.
The beginning of this partnership will see Pathstone bringing people to NMCC for training, but that may change over time to see NMCC bringing people to Pathstone as well, according to Crowley.
“We are very excited. NMCC will be the main training facility for Pathstone applicants in Aroostook County,” said Pathstone outreach coordinator Juan Morales. Probably nine out of 10 of the applicants we get will have their training done at NMCC.”
