Delaware County Community College (DCCC) announced a $300,390 grant from the Chappell Culpeper Family Foundation to launch its new Manufacturing Pathways Initiative, a tuition-free program pairing GED preparation with industry-recognized technical training for low-income adults facing barriers to education and employment. Dr. Karen Kozachyn, DCCC’s Vice President of Workforce and Economic Development, said the design is meant to knock down more than one barrier at once: “This grant allows us to remove barriers to education and create new opportunities for local residents to enter high-demand manufacturing careers. By combining GED preparation with industry-recognized technical training, we’re building a stronger workforce pipeline that benefits both our students and the region’s employers.” Community College Daily described the program as “a comprehensive education-to-employment model designed to strengthen the Greater Philadelphia manufacturing workforce while expanding access to family-sustaining careers through free training.”
Two Certificate Pathways, One On-Ramp
Students who need it can start with free GED preparation before moving into one of two credentialing tracks: a 34-credit CNC Manufacturing Certificate, which prepares graduates for entry-level machining and industrial production roles across aerospace, automotive, medical devices, defense, and energy manufacturing, or a 15-credit Computer-Aided Drafting and Design (CADD) Certificate, aimed at entry-level drafting and design-support positions in engineering, construction, and utilities. Either track can lead into DCCC’s Associate in Applied Science degree, giving students a structured path from no diploma at all to a college credential without paying tuition along the way. The program runs out of DCCC’s Marple campus and its Southeast Center in Drexel Hill.
A Repeat Funder With a Growing Track Record at DCCC
This isn’t the Chappell Culpeper Family Foundation’s first investment in the college. The foundation awarded DCCC $99,925 in April 2025 to fund scholarships for up to 35 students in its non-credit Pharmacy Technician, Multi-Skilled Medical Technician, and Sterile Processing Technician programs, along with English Language Learner tutoring for students in those healthcare tracks. Laura Chisholm, DCCC’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Executive Director of the college’s Educational Foundation, called that earlier grant a way to “enhance equity in healthcare education, ensuring students gain critical skills, hands-on training and professional credentials needed for job placement.” Between the two grants, the foundation has now backed workforce training at DCCC across two of the region’s highest-demand sectors, healthcare and manufacturing, in the span of about a year and a half.
Part of a Bigger Workforce Push at a Greater Philadelphia Community College
The manufacturing grant also lands alongside a much larger DCCC workforce initiative announced earlier this year: in January 2026, the college became lead partner on an $8 million, four-year U.S. Department of Labor grant alongside Hanwha Philly Shipyard, Drexel University, and a regional higher-education consortium to build an International Shipbuilding Fellowship program, with plans to grow annual apprenticeship capacity from 120 to roughly 500 by 2027. Taken together, the two grants point to a community college in the middle of Delaware County actively positioning itself as a workforce pipeline for the region’s manufacturing and industrial employers, whether that means welders for a shipyard or CNC machinists for aerospace and medical device makers across Greater Philadelphia.
