White Plains Education and Training Center (2017 LGAA)

City of White Plains
County: Westchester County
Population: 50,000 +
City Hall: (914) 422-1200

The White Plains Education & Training Center (WPETC) is a 13,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility which provides comprehensive workforce development while at the same time strengthening the city’s economic development strategy by offering employers a well-trained and skilled workforce. The WPETC is operated and managed by the City of White Plains. The WPETC employs a unique collaboration between government and the private sector in order to provide real-time training for high demand jobs and skills development in an easily accessible manner and location. WPETC is supporting the employment needs of regional, high growth industries including: culinary and hospitality, medical and health care, technology, and entrepreneurship.

The WPETC is located on the ground floor of the Prelude at Brookfield Commons, the first building of a planned long-term transformation and comprehensive redevelopment of the White Plains Housing Authority’s 450-unit public housing campus. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provided $3.5 million with a $1.5 million matching grant provided by the city. The Prelude at Brookfield Commons is now home to 103 affordable housing units, occupied by relocated housing authority tenants and the White Plains Education & Training Center.

Capital costs for the complete construction of the WPETC totaled more than $3.6 million. The City of White Plains operating costs for the WPETC are approximately $500,000 annually. Workforce development providers bring their resources on site at their own cost, with the exception of the Culinary Tech Center which has a lease agreement with the city.

In 2016, the WPETC served 795 people with comprehensive workforce development services. The typical WPETC participant is a mature adult between 31 and 50 years of age and has an income below $50,000. The WPETC offers a variety of career pathways that make it possible for a mature adult to maintain their personal and familial responsibilities while pursuing a career path. Courses are offered as stackable credentials, allowing a participant to begin employment in their new career while continuing to develop their skills and adding further certifications that will qualify them for a higher level position.

The Prelude is the first completed phase of the transformation and redevelopment of the largest public housing campus in White Plains. The future phases of the redevelopment will provide more than 800 additional apartments, which will replace all of the older, out-of-date towers with new, green mixed-income buildings, planned so that the current residents will never have to move off-site and new residents will move in at market rate rents.