There are nearly 14,000 Delaware County residents unemployed because of COVID-19.

To help the unemployed and underemployed find their way back to work in the post-COVID workplace, the Delaware County Workforce Development System offers free tuition assistance for training in high-demand occupations .

The Workforce Development System works with business and education leaders to identify the skills and training that workers will need to succeed.

The Workforce Development System then provides tuition for unemployed or underemployed residents to get training in these critical skills.

Only colleges and training schools with a strong record of helping people get jobs in their new field are selected for the program.

As the Federal Government provides stimulus programs to extend the length of unemployment benefits, this is an ideal time for unemployed residents to take advantage of an opportunity to get the skills they need for post-COVID employment.

Tuition assistance is available for many in-demand fields such as healthcare, manufacturing, computer programming, and contact tracing. Program participants include Delaware County Community College, Villanova Professional Program, All State Training School, Springhouse Education, and Full Circle Computing.

Maryanne Pilson took advantage of tuition assistance to change careers.

“Most of my life I worked as an IT project manager and support analyst within the pharmaceutical industry.  As the industry continues to change and hire abroad by being service driven I saw less opportunities to be technical and wanted to work independently.”

Working with staff at CareerLink she was able to get a state grant for training in a field with growth and opportunities.

An assessment of her aptitude aligned her with the job requirements, as they worked out a plan that gave her a more hopeful future.

In five to six weeks, she had a Commercial Driver’s License/CDL class A.

CareerLink paid for the training costs.  

Two months later, she had a job driving commercial vehicles that gave her opportunities to travel, meet and work with people all over the country.

To learn more about this available training and all career programs available, call 610-723-1220, email wec@dccc.edu or visit

The first step is to attend an orientation to learn about all the programs available. Call 610-723-1220, email , or visit https://pacareerlinkdelco.org to find out how to attend an orientation session.