The vision of the City College for Municipal Employment (CCME) includes developing and supporting direct pipelines to municipal employment for Philadelphia high school seniors planning to enter the workforce. CCME is working to open doors of access to quality jobs for all Philadelphia students whether they go to a public, charter, or private school. To support this workforce goal, CCME has partnered with the City’s Fleet Services and Department of Public Property to provide supplemental training to their existing apprenticeship programs.
Currently, Fleet and the Department of Public Property work with high school juniors and seniors enrolled in a corresponding career and technical education program (CTE) to provide on the job training during the school year. The goal of these department-led programs is to pipeline the seniors directly into City employment. The departments’ primary focus is on technical skill building, so the CCME partnership allowed the existing programs to now provide career readiness by teaching them the “soft skills” they need to succeed.
CCME designed a bootcamp program offering training in key areas over two full days, with an option for the seniors to attend a Saturday session as well. Sessions were held Thursday, May 15th – Saturday, May 17th and nineteen high school seniors from Fleet Services and Public Property attended. Seniors came from six high schools, representing Swenson, Workshop, Audenreid, Randolph, Mastbaum, and Edison.
The bootcamp was offered as a supplement to their hands-on technical trades training at the Community College of Philadelphia Career and Advance Technology Center (CATC). Over three days, the students engaged in discussions centered around customer service, conflict resolution and financial literacy. In addition to classroom instruction, students participated in hands-on tasks on a heavy-duty vehicle and a tour of CATC facilities highlighting the welding, automotive and industrial mechanics programs.
After completing the bootcamp, students provided positive feedback on the sessions. Fleet Services and the Department of Public Property are actively working on transitioning students into full-time positions with the departments. The Department of Public Property interns will be offered positions as Public Works Maintenance Trainees and Fleet Services will offer positions as Automotive Apprentices, both with starting salaries of $42,529 for individuals just graduating from high school.
