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Labor & Industry secretary talks with Fort Cherry students at South Fayette Biz Town

By Brad Hundt 2 min read
article image - Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Nancy Walker, Pennsylvania's secretary of labor and industry, talks with students at the Junior Achievement Biz Town Monday.

Nancy Walker is “the entire boss of all jobs in Pennsylvania.”

That’s how Walker, Pennsylvania’s secretary of the Department of Labor and Industry, was introduced to fifth-graders from the Fort Cherry School District Monday morning at Junior Achievement’s Biz Town in South Fayette Township. Indeed, Walker oversees a sprawling department that has a $1.5 billion annual budget and oversees everything from unemployment compensation to elevator inspection within the commonwealth.

Walker was at Biz Town for the start of Youth Apprenticeship Week, a nationwide initiative spotlighting the value and benefits registered apprenticeship programs have for young people aged 16 to 24. Walker also met with high school students from the Western Area Career and Technology Center in Chartiers Township about career readiness.

“We want to encourage young people to dream big dreams and (Gov. Josh Shapiro) is very much a proponent that everybody should have the opportunity to choose their own path,” Walker said.

The secretary pointed out that shortly after taking office in January 2023, Shapiro eliminated the college-degree requirement for most of the commonwealth’s jobs. The governor called it an “arbitrary requirement” and an “arbitrary limitation.” Shapiro’s executive order affected more than 90% of Pennsylvania state jobs and about 65,000 positions.

Walker explained, “One of the things we’re saying is whether it’s a career program or a career apprenticeship program is that we are removing barriers so people can pursue opportunities, so making sure we have vocational training, so we can make sure that young people have transportation, so young people or not-so-young people can get to opportunities, or there’s affordable child care or broadband access to get remote work.”

Junior Achievement’s Biz Town opened in 2020, and it’s an interactive, hands-on learning lab that showcases the way businesses operate, how the wheels turn in communities and how the “real world” functions. While she was there, Walker swore in Sam Holmes, a fifth-grader from the Fort Cherry School District, as Biz Town’s student mayor.

Electra Janis, a Washington County commissioner, was also at the event, and she said she would like to see additional Washington County school districts participate in Biz Town.

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