SCHNECKSVILLE, Pa. - Lehigh Carbon Community College recently received a federal grant to provide commercial truck driver training to members of the armed forces and their families.
It’s a career path that has become more in demand due to the pandemic, said Andrea Grannum-Mosley, interim dean of Workforce, Community Engagement, and Technical Education at LCCC.
“It’s very difficult to translate your military job to a civilian job,” she said. “It really gives you a long-term career. It gives you benefits. Ninety-nine percent of the trucking companies, definitely in the Pennsylvania area, have a crazy sign-on bonus. I mean, the numerical amount ranges from $700 to $3,000.”
Grannum-Mosley served seven years in the U.S. Army.
She said this grant of about $75,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation will be put to good use, as the pandemic has seen demand for commercial trucking grow even more.
“We’ve realized that everything that we do has to be brought in or taken out, so the need for drivers, the need for the ability to have someone that knows how to be safe on the road, that can take things from point A to point B, has increased,” she said.
She said 2021 is at least the sixth year that the community college has received this type of grant funding.
