Oftentimes, it’s not what you know, but who you know.“One hundred percent correct,” said Angela Mike, the director of Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Career and Technical Education program.
She said it while in a room with dozens of PPS high school seniors who were having one-on-one networking sessions with local professionals representing everything from ALCOSAN, to PNC Bank, to the City of Pittsburgh, to the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation.
And let’s not forget about John Putzier, who was there representing the local Automobile Dealers Association. Putzier was so impressed with one high school senior that he took the student’s resume for an automotive technician and said he’ll pass it on to the many new car dealerships he communicates with in the region that are in need of automotive technicians—“desperately,” according to Putzier.
“We are really looking to hire as many people as we can,” he said.
It was the second consecutive year for “Hire Learning,” the professional development program for PPS seniors in the CTE program, held at the district’s Greenway Professional Learning Center. Out of the CTE program’s 140 seniors, roughly 75 were on hand on this Nov. 14 mid-morning to showcase their communication and job-readiness skills to industry professionals. Similar to the “speed dating” concept, the students participated in “speed networking,” where they spent five minutes with a particular industry professional, then rotated to another industry professional.
The process lasted for roughly 40 minutes.
Jalen Smith, a senior at Brashear High School, told the Courier he was nervous at first to interact with the professionals, but found out it was “a good opportunity to practice for an interview” and a “good process for getting motivated to find out what your career is, what the future holds for you.”
Rameire Colbert, a senior at University Prep, told the Courier that speaking with the professionals was confirmation as to the many opportunities available to him in the future. He wants a profession in the entertainment technology field.
Aaliyah Artis, a senior at Westinghouse, wants to become a pediatrician. She told the Courier that she was motivated by the professionals who told her the salaries that pediatricians (and nurses, another possible profession for Artis) generate.
“We’re introducing them to people right here in the City of Pittsburgh, so if they went Downtown, if they went to East Liberty, they would see all of these folks, live and in person,” Mike said. The networking from the event could, in the future, give the students the upper hand in being offered employment by that professional, or at least, the professional can “point them in the right direction for employment,” Mike said.
In 2018, the first year of the event, Mike said the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. And the number of students from 2018 to 2019 grew. “Last year, students were amazed once they got here,” she said. “They were a little nervous about coming, but after they came, they said their confidence had been built, they felt like they really could sell themselves, and they understood the power of networking. When I told them that over 70 percent of people get their jobs by networking, after the event, they said they understood why.”
In the CTE program, there are a number of sub-divisions a student can explore, such as early childhood education, automotive technology, culinary arts, finance technology, and cosmetology.
CTE’s cosmetology program is just what the doctor ordered for Kenisha Morgan. She was able to earn all the needed hours for a cosmetology certificate while she was in high school at Westinghouse some 10 years ago. She was one of the industry professionals speaking to the students at the networking event—as owner and lead cosmetologist of Wink & Wax Esthetic Studio on E. Carson St., South Side.
“I just wanted to show them (the students) that I was in their shoes, and seeing someone prosper from being where they were 10 years ago and owning my own (business), they can do it if I can do it,” Morgan said.
She said the key for the students as they head into jobs or post-secondary education is confidence. “Know that they got it. It’s not on them, it’s in them,” she said.
As for Putzier, he also is on the local Skill Trades Advisory Council. And they’re always looking for carpenters and electricians. He told the Courier that in addition to the resume he received from a high school senior interested in becoming an automotive technician, he would be taking with him some additional resumes he received from students who want to be in the trades.
“I didn’t think we’d be hiring people today, but there definitely are some kids here who are very hirable,” Putzier told the Courier. “I’m very impressed with these kids; good eye contact, good communications skills. Whatever training they got, it’s working.”
RAMEIRE COLBERT, right, a high school senior at University Prep, speaks with industry professional Gordon Manker from the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.) (Featued Image)
by Rob Taylor Jr., Courier Staff Writer
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