PLEASANT GAP, PA The Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology (CPI) is offering a new two-year degree designed to train students to become technicians in the fast-growing gas compression field.

CPI has developed the Natural Gas Compression: Cat/Ariel Emphasis Associate of Specialized Technology degree in a partnership with Cleveland Brothers Equipment Co., Inc., a Pennsylvania-based Cat® dealer that supplies the region with the world's leading industrial-sized diesel engines, and Ariel Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of natural gas compressors. CPI is currently accepting student enrollment for the fall 2017 program, set to begin Nov. 28, 2017. The two-year degree is one of only two of its kind nationwide.

Working with Cleveland Brothers, the largest Cat dealer in Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia and western Maryland, and Ariel, headquartered in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, the CPI program will train technicians on engines and compressors for the oil and gas industry in the heart of the Marcellus Shale Formation. As the largest source of domestic natural gas in the U.S. and becoming the second largest natural gas field in the world, the opportunities for employment in the Marcellus field in Pennsylvania alone are abundant. Including the Marcellus field, Pennsylvania has over 9,000 active wells and is the 6th largest state in the U.S. for oil and gas employment with over 15,000 field-related jobs, as of 2012.

"Cleveland Brothers has a large population of G3500 and G3600 gas compression engines in our territory," said Jeff Lauver, Vice President of the Cleveland Brothers Energy & Transportation division, "so there is a significant need for technicians, like the ones who will be graduating from the CPI program."

Cleveland Brothers, Ariel and other gas industry partners will be reviewing students of the program after the first term. If pre-hired by the program's industry partners, students will receive $7,500 per year ($15,000 total) in company-sponsored tuition reimbursement.