Scott Covert, Penn United Technologies' training coordinator, was presented the Outstanding Individual Apprentice Program Award by James R. Reese, apprenticeship and training field representative for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Western Region. Covert, on right, accepted the award on behalf of Penn United's apprenticeship programs.

Penn United Technologies in Cabot earned state recognition at a summit in Harrisburg for its dozen apprenticeship programs.

Scott Covert, the company's training coordinator, said they have about 80 apprentices on their way to becoming journeymen. They added three new apprenticeships this year in CNC operation, die designing and quality control inspection.

“Pennsylvania has long been a tremendous apprenticeship state,” Covert said in a phone interview Thursday. “To even be talked about in the same sentence as some of this state's programs is an honor, let alone to be honored with this.”

The company earned the “Outstanding Individual Apprenticeship Program Award” from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry's Apprenticeship and Training Office, according to a news release.

The award was given at an apprenticeship summit on Sept. 26. It was the first such summit the office has held, and in the future the organization plans to hold them annually.

Penn United Technologies employs more than 700 people, Covert said. The apprentices themselves are also employees.

“They are employees from day one,” Covert said. “We use the apprenticeship training model from day one of their employment. There is no job-seeking after, they're already employed.”

Besides the three new programs, the company's machining and plating apprenticeships are rather robust and noteworthy, Covert said.

He noted that Gov. Tom Wolf had “earmarked a lot of funding to these programs” in 2018.

A CNC operator uses automated precision tools, such as mills, lathes and 3D printers. That sort of automated, high-precision tool operation is a continually growing field, Covert said.