Pennsylvania has awarded Lehigh Carbon Community College a $5 million grant to develop an accelerated training program that will prepare Lehigh Valley residents for jobs at Eli Lilly's planned $3.5 billion injectable medicine and device manufacturing campus in Upper Macungie. Governor Josh Shapiro announced the investment at the Da Vinci Science Center as part of the state's effort to ensure local workers are well-positioned for the roughly 850 permanent jobs the campus is expected to create when it opens in 2031.
Training Built Around Speed, Not a Four-Year Degree
The program LCCC is building moves away from traditional college degree requirements. Instead, it focuses on accelerated, hands-on instruction in the technical skills that pharmaceutical manufacturing demands, specifically maintenance, production, and quality assurance roles. Students will earn industry certifications in smart manufacturing and programmable logic controllers, the automated systems that run modern production lines.
LCCC officials described the model as a way to move workers into well-paying jobs quickly. The college already has experience with this format: LCCC is one of only four training centers in the United States authorized to run workforce programs for Amazon's advanced manufacturing and robotics facilities.
The new Lilly-focused curriculum is expected to build on that existing infrastructure. The college says it will work with area high schools and local employers to enroll students, with full program details to be posted on the LCCC website.
The Plant the Program Is Built Around
Eli Lilly announced its $3.5 billion Lehigh Valley campus in early 2026, describing it as the company's newest site for injectable medicine and device manufacturing. The roughly 925,000-square-foot campus is planned for the Fogelsville area of Upper Macungie Township in Lehigh County.
Lilly projects the construction phase alone will bring approximately 2,000 construction jobs to the region. Once operational, the campus is expected to support about 850 permanent manufacturing and laboratory positions. The facility is not expected to open until 2031, giving the LCCC training pipeline a five-year runway to develop qualified applicants.
Construction on the campus is slated to begin this year, making the timing of the grant announcement closely aligned with the project's groundwork phase.
Part of a Broader Workforce Strategy
The grant is one piece of a wider state investment in Pennsylvania's life sciences and advanced manufacturing workforce, designed to ensure that residents near major industrial projects can compete for the jobs those projects create. The Lehigh Valley has attracted growing attention from pharmaceutical and high-tech manufacturers in recent years because of its highway connections, available land, and proximity to major population centers.
LCCC serves the Lehigh Valley and Carbon County communities from its main campus in Schnecksville, Lehigh County.
At a Glance
- Pennsylvania awarded LCCC a $5 million grant to create an accelerated workforce training program for the Eli Lilly campus in Upper Macungie.
- The program will train maintenance technicians, production workers, and quality assurance staff using hands-on instruction and smart manufacturing certifications.
- Eli Lilly's $3.5 billion injectable medicine campus in Upper Macungie is planned to open in 2031 with about 850 permanent jobs.
- LCCC is already one of four US centers authorized to run Amazon advanced manufacturing workforce programs.
- Governor Shapiro announced the grant at the Da Vinci Science Center.
