SUMMER 2009
Articles:
Resources at the Ready for Regional Workplace Development
Resources connect and engage us with information, people, opportunities and events. Resources are a support in our daily work and enable us to make smarter decisions on the job. For individuals looking to enter or reposition themselves in the world of work, resources can clarify education and career decisions and can assist employers in communicating their workforce needs and filling the pipeline with qualified candidates.
The Pittsburgh region is rich in resources, including the Pittsburgh Regional Compact. The Compact creates partnerships between regional employers and educators with the aim of helping today’s students to understand the diversity of our regional economy. Informing students about employment opportunities here, and helping them understand how they should prepare for those jobs, will allow businesses to more easily find the qualified workers that they need.
The Compact – through its web site, the new Compact Connector and this newsletter, the Pittsburgh Regional Compact Quarterly – can centralize the many valuable resources of regional employers, educators and other organizations offering career education, making them more easily accessible.
In fact, this Summer 2009 issue of the Quarterly brings to the foreground several resources in support of workforce development that are worth getting to know: the above-mentioned Compact Connector; ImagineMyNewJob.com, a web-based job search portal; and Pittsburgh Today’s Regional Indicators.
Use the above links or read on to learn more about these resources.
If you are already acquainted, you’re encouraged to think about the other workplace development resources that you rely on. Please share them so that they can become a part of a comprehensive electronic library of resources housed at www.pittsburghregionalcompact.org for easy, one-stop access.
Compact Connector
The new Compact Connector makes it easier for partner organizations to participate in the Pittsburgh Regional Compact. Available on the Compact website, the Connector provides an online directory of Compact members and career education opportunities.
Here’s how the Connector works: each member employer, school, or partner organization creates an online profile which contains basic contact information for the member’s Compact coordinator, as well as a list of the member organization’s career education interests. In addition to this basic information, Compact members can also post information about specific career education opportunities, such as career fairs, workplace tours or internships. Compact profiles are viewable and searchable by any visitor to the Compact website. However, contact information for each member’s Compact coordinator is only available to other registered members of the Compact.
Getting started with the Connector takes just a few easy steps:
- Go to www.pittsburghregionalcompact.org and select “Join” in the navigation bar. This will take you to the registration page.
- Fill out the registration form, making sure you complete all of the required fields.
- Identify the types of career education activities that your organization supports or facilitates.
- Submit your application. You will receive an e-mail when your account has been activated.
- Once your account is activated, you can post specific career education opportunities by clicking on “Create Opportunity” in the quick links section in the main Connector page.
ImagineMyNewJob.com
In addition to serving as a one-stop resource for those seeking employment now, ImagineMyNewJob.com can be a useful tool for young people considering their futures in the region. Premiering last September, the job search portal allows students to view a real-world snapshot of our region’s employment opportunities and is considered to be the 10-county region’s most comprehensive online job search resource. The site – developed by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development as a public service – is a free, easy-to-use “one stop shop” that pools all the online postings from search engines such as Monster and CareerBuilder.com, as well as from individual company job sites.
ImagineMyNewJob.com queries can be sorted by salary range, industry, keyword, company name, job title, radius (up to 70 miles around downtown Pittsburgh) and more. Currently, ImagineMyNewJob.com lists more than 20,000 job openings in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The region’s key industry sectors are expected to lead our economy into the foreseeable future, and the site provides examples of job openings now in information and communications technology, life sciences/biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and energy. Reviewing current opportunities, today’s students – as well as educators – will become familiar with the education and skills that will be necessary to land jobs like these in the future. In a similar manner, current postings on ImagineMyNewJob.com can be a helpful tool for conducting or preparing for mock job interviews that reflect real-world opportunities right here in the Pittsburgh region.
Pittsburgh Today's Regional Indicators
The Pittsburgh Regional Indicators is an initiative to establish a comprehensive information system by comparing this region to 14 regions of similar size: Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Philadelphia, Richmond and St. Louis.
Educators and employers will find the monthly indicators helpful in better understanding the regional population – including age, immigration and educational attainment, as well as trends in job growth in key sectors and wages by occupation. Employers gain insight into their prospective workforce and educators can use the data collected by Pittsburgh Today to discuss regional career trends with students or to help shape real-world career education.
Nearly 100 Employers, Educators Gather for
Imagine! Career Week Kick-off Breakfast
Imagine! Career Week 2009, April 20 – 24, kicked off with a breakfast to encourage dialogue about career education. Nearly 100 employers and educators came together to hear success stories and to consider how to best prepare today’s youth to become the workforce of tomorrow for regional employers. The breakfast was jointly sponsored by the Pittsburgh Regional Compact and The Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board and its E4 program, Employers and Educators Engaged for Excellence.
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At the breakfast, City of Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl formally announced the city’s commitment to career education, which included enrolling the city as a Compact member and detailing plans for the city’s summer youth employment program. The latter will include civic conservation/field work and general office work in a variety of businesses and work readiness or “soft skills” training for a record number – 554 – youths this July and August. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is providing $1 million in federal stimulus dollars to help fund the program, in addition to other funding.
Mayor Ravenstahl’s announcement was followed by an overview of the Pittsburgh Regional Compact and it future direction by Allegheny Conference Senior Vice President Laura Fisher. Next, a panel of school representatives spoke about the development of career education programs in schools throughout the Pittsburgh region. The breakfast concluded with small group discussions between employers and educators around aspects of career education/workforce preparation. A summary of those discussions has been prepared by Allegheny Conference staff.
United Way Launches “Largest Mentoring Program in Region’s History”
The United Way of Allegheny County recently announced the launch a community-wide effort to recruit hundreds of mentors for sixth-grade students enrolled in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The effort – Be a Sixth Grade Mentor – has been billed as the “biggest call for mentors in Pittsburgh’s history.”
Partnering with the Pittsburgh Youth Futures Commission and the Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania to develop the program, the United Way hopes that mentors will build positive, nurturing relationships with sixth-grade students, help prepare students for academic and career success and help them become eligible for the Pittsburgh Promise college scholarship program. It’s estimated that there are some 1,800 sixth graders in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The Pittsburgh Public Schools system is a member of the Pittsburgh Regional Compact.
Volunteer mentors will be screened, trained and monitored and will be asked to meet with their mentees for at least 45 minutes each week during the school year. A one-year mentoring commitment is requested.
The Pittsburgh Regional Compact recognizes the value of mentoring as a way to raise awareness of the possibilities for employment with regional businesses and industries. “The interactions between students and mentors from the business community can be valuable for young people. Mentors engage students with their communities and can help them develop the poise and confidence necessary to succeed. Mentors can also help students start thinking about whether their dreams, in time, can be developed into dream jobs. The sixth grade is not too soon for students to be considering a variety of possibilities for their career futures and learning how to best prepare for them,” said Laura Fisher with the Allegheny Conference—one of the Compact’s sponsors.
Recruitment of mentors runs through August and mentoring beings in August. Learn more at www.bea6thgradementor.org.
National Magazines Recognize Compact Member Schools Among
Nation’s “Best” Schools
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Five Compact member high schools from the Pittsburgh region were recognized in May with “silver” category ratings by U.S. News and World Report in its annual ranking of America’s best high schools, produced in cooperation with School Matters, a service of Standard & Poor’s. Those Compact member schools receiving a “silver” rating were Pittsburgh Allderdice, North Allegheny, Peters, Pine-Richland and Upper St. Clair. Additionally, the following Compact member schools received “bronze” ratings: City Charter High School, Leechburg Area, Freedom Area, Homer-Center and Greensburg Salem.
Another national publication, Newsweek, included five Compact member high schools on its list of the 1,500 top public high schools. These included Pine-Richland, Upper St. Clair, Quaker Valley, North Allegheny – all in Allegheny County – and Blackhawk in Beaver County.
Congratulations to these schools on their nationally recognized status, which supports the Compact’s efforts to develop a high-quality workforce ready to fill the jobs regional employers have to offer.
Compact in the News
Compact Member North Hills High School and its career and professional development class was featured in the April 16, 2009 Post-Gazette article, “High Schools Teach Students Valuable Lessons for Job Search.”
The Pittsburgh Regional Compact is an employer-driven initiative collaboratively
sponsored by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, business
leaders, educators, students, educational institutions and workforce development
organizations across the 10-county Pittsburgh region.