Philadelphia Business Journal
by Natalie Kostelni
In the earliest days of the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative, University City District, which created the program, thought it would start out helping youth and young adults find jobs.
“That was the low-hanging fruit,” said Matt Bergheiser, executive director of University City District.
The pioneering and successful program has since gone beyond young adults and is being replicated in areas beyond University City. It has also expanded into increasingly better quality jobs, which can be life-changing.
Established in 2011, West Philadelphia Skills Initiative trains people who live in the neighborhood and connects them to employment opportunities with the medical and educational institutions in the community. It does that by partnering with these institutions to determine the jobs they need to fill and working with each to devise training programs that teach the skills necessary for someone to successfully accomplish the job.
In the program’s first year, it had seven people graduate and four were placed in jobs. It increased the number of graduates every year until 2020, when the program was canceled between March and June because of the coronavirus. This year, the number of graduates is set to be the most the skills initiative has ever had at a projected 159, and it could be as high as 200 in 2022.