Qualified people.
Quality jobs.
We’re an accelerator for the exceptional. We champion economic mobility by connecting great talent with great jobs.
Qualified people.
Quality jobs.
We’re an accelerator for the exceptional. We champion economic mobility by connecting great talent with great jobs.
Qualified people. Quality jobs.
We’re an accelerator for the exceptional. We champion economic mobility by connecting great talent with great jobs.
Who We Serve
OUR PARTICIPANTS
Skills Initiative participants bring a wide variety of professional, academic and lived experiences to the program. Our participants can be as young as 18, while others chose to join our program in their late sixties. We have served job seekers with GEDs and Master’s degrees. We routinely serve participants in the early stages of their careers, mothers returning to the workforce, and career changers, all within one cohort. The Skills Initiative staff greatly value the diversity of experiences in the classroom and believe it contributes to the success of our program.
Key Demographics:
31%
Male
69%
Female
<1%
Nonbinary
32
Average Age
85.5%
Black or African-American
6.5%
White
3.4%
Hispanic
2.4%
Other race or ethnicity
1.7%
Asian
0.5%
American Indian
37
Median number of months prior work experience
27%
Post-secondary experience
OUR EMPLOYER PARTNERS
The Skills Initiative works closely with top employers in Philadelphia to connect them to talent and help address their staffing, training, and retention needs. We partner with Philadelphia anchor institutions, which include our universities and hospital systems, as well as large corporate and government employers. We work with a wide range of industries, including childcare, construction, education, government, medicine, landscaping, and transportation. The Skills Initiative invests in building long-term relationships; we have completed as many as fourteen programs for our longest-standing partners.
Current Employer Partners:
Philadelphia Anchors
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
- Drexel University
- Penn Medicine
- University of Pennsylvania
- Temple University
Major Philadelphia Employers
- Allied Universal
- American Medical Response Inc.
- Benefits Data Trust
- CVS Pharmacy
- Green City Works
- Keystone Quality Transport
- Philadelphia Fire Department
- Philadelphia Works
- PIDC
- Rebuild Philadelphia
- SEPTA
