Workforce development programs train next-generation tradespeople in Pennsylvania

Educational institutions and regional programs are seeing a surge in interest as more people trade four-year degrees for hands-on careers.

By KAITLYN HUGHES
TribLive

Klauss Garibaldi sat in the Carrie Blast Furnace building in Rankin, intently molding wax into a dragon. He used fire to bend the material and eventually laid his creation into resin-bound sand.

For Garibaldi, it will help him chase his dreams of becoming an electrician.

Garibaldi, 29, from Pittsburgh’s North Side, went to a university in Brazil and spent two years as an architect until he realized there weren’t “good opportunities.”

Longing to do more hands-on work, he found a workforce development program started by Rivers of Steel, which aims to expose people to the trades in a new way.

The program was a perfect fit for Garibaldi because he could develop skills while getting paid.

“When I saw it, I thought it was a lie,” he said.

A group of eight trainees who have backgrounds in the arts, cooking and welding spend 25 hours a week getting paid $20 an hour to learn from a textbook and get hands-on experience in manufacturing, welding, electricity, heavy equipment and cementing.

Although the students may seem unconventional tradespeople, this is the future of the workforce, according to Derek Stein, who is head of instruction for workforce development at Rivers of Steel.

“As there has been more and more demand, people who maybe would have not considered trades are getting interested,” he said. “We are getting people from very diverse backgrounds.”

Trainees graduate with three certificates and six months of workforce experience, Stein said.

“We want them to be able to make that next step and not go into that next step blind,” Stein said. “What they learn here is translatable.”

Infrastructure work sparks demand

The demand for jobs in the sector is a trend in Westmoreland County, too.

Westmoreland County Community College near Youngwood is seeing an increase in programs related to the trades, according to President Kristin Mallory.

“It’s been shown that there is a great need that’s developing here,” she said. “All the folks that we need to run the infrastructure are aging out.”

So the school is taking advantage of this change.

Megan Sheesley, vice president of advancement and community engagement at the college, said the school is rolling out a series of boot camps and noncredit programs.

“There is a void for individuals who don’t have two years to get the degree but still need the training,” she said. “This prepares you to enter the workforce in a more competitive way. I think accessibility is key. We want to meet people where they are.

“It’s not just helping individuals, but we’re filling the needs of employers.”

Past to future

Trades are the foundation of what Pittsburgh is with its history of glass factories and steel mills, said Ron Baraff, the vice president of historic resources and facilities for Rivers of Steel.

“This city built this country and the world, and it’s on the backs of labor,” he said. “When people think of Pittsburgh, they think of labor and trades.”

Although there was a decline in the steel industry in the late 20th century, there are still trades that make up a large part of the workforce in the region, such as plumbing, construction, welding, steel and iron.

“Yes, things have changed, but it’s still at its core, it’s still a blue collar city,” Baraff said. “They’re very needed to drive the economy in this region and keep the region sustained.”

Although Pittsburgh has become known for AI and robotics with institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University making strides in those sectors, Baraff said, trades workers are still behind those endeavors.

“You’re still going to need plumbers for folks working in AI because there’s a lot of water being used,” he said. “If you look a little deeper, you realize that the trades are behind all of this.”

‘Help is coming’

Eastern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center in Derry Township offers a wide variety of programs to high school students, including auto technology, collision repair, construction, masonry, plumbing, HVAC and welding.

“Our enrollment is growing,” administrative director Todd Weimer said. “(The programs) are reaching max capacity.”

Weimer attributes the increase in students to people’s recognition of the impact of career and technology centers.

“Being able to finish high school with a tangible skill and no debt is a no-brainer,” he said.

In Allegheny County, Kevin Rice, executive director of Steel Center for Career and Technical Education, said they are seeing the same uptick in students.

When Rice started working at the center, there were about 577 students, and now there are 1,035. Last year, there were 149 students on the waitlist.

“For far too long, folks believed in college as the golden ticket, and that hasn’t worked out for them,” he said.

That has created a problem in the industry.

“There are more jobs than there are people to fill them,” Rice said.

But the increasing enrollment at Steel Center is “a sign that help is coming.”

Joseph Laquatra, who is the business manager of Pennsylvania’s Labor District Council, said he is seeing the result of the increased interest in trades. He oversees 15 local unions throughout the states, 11 of them being in Western Pennsylvania.

“We are in a boom right now,” Laquatra said. “It’s an exciting time to be in the trades.”

On top of recruiting efforts made by union business managers, he said, a lot of people are turning away from four-year degrees.

“A lot of members have four-year degrees, and they didn’t get a job in the field they went to school for,” Laquatra said.

This is why trainees in Rivers of Steel workforce development program turned to the trades.

Jessie Glaser, 25, of Squirrel Hill originally went to the Pratt Institute in New York to study art.

“I don’t know an artist that doesn’t have a job that gets them by,” Glaser said.

Glaser decided to get into the trades so she can still have a job where she is making things.

“What we’re learning is going to make me a better maker,” she said.

The industry’s increase in numbers gives Laquatra reason to believe the future of these professions in Western Pennsylvania is bright.

“Pittsburgh is a different beast,” he said. “It’s like a tradition. It’s a pride that you have that you’ve constructed that bridge that thousands are crossing every day.”