15 Graduates Move Toward Careers in Skilled Trades Through PIT2Work

For Antionese Morphis, 35, there were days it would have been easier to stay home rather than get to her five-week pre-apprenticeship program by 5:45 or 7 a.m.

“I had to put my pride aside and ask for help when I needed it, for my children,” Morphis said. “I made the commitment to myself that I was going to show up and show my children to finish something that you want to start.”

She was determined to “learn, grow and open the door to a career in the trades.”

Morphis, who had perfect attendance, was one of 15 people from Allegheny County who graduated Friday from PIT2Work, a free, five-week pre-apprenticeship program to propel them into careers in the skilled trades. During training, students learned in the classroom from industry experts and went to training centers to hear from trades leadership and journeypersons about the work, while gaining valuable industry certifications.

Morphis is interested in pursuing a career in the sheet metal workers’ union.

Keynote speaker and Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh President/CEO Jennifer Thompkins said the program is “building the workforce Pittsburgh needs.” She cited a nearly 9 percent growth in the number of construction jobs in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area to 52,700 between January and June of this year.

“You are entering this industry at the right time. You are in the right place at the right time. You are not standing on the sidelines watching the future happen; you are the cutting edge of it. The future is going to require you. Look around at Pittsburgh. We are a region constantly rebuilding and reinventing ourselves,” Thompkins said. “The steel mills helped build Pittsburgh. Today, construction workers, electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, carpenters, welders, heavy equipment operators, laborers, engineers, and countless other skilled professions are helping to build the next Pittsburgh. And, so, you are part of that story. You are not standing on the sidelines.”

Graduates, along with their families, friends and loved ones, celebrated Friday morning at a reception and breakfast at DoubleTree Pittsburgh Airport Hotel in Moon Township. Graduates received PPE, including work boots and a hard hat, a work bag, certificates and professional portraits.

This is PIT2Work’s eighth cohort and represented a reimagining of the program from supporting the construction of Allegheny County Airport Authority’s (ACAA) Terminal Modernization Program to sustaining the new terminal through work including predictive maintenance and analysis, preventative maintenance, and building and operational systems.

“The world is changing,” said ACAA CEO Christina Cassotis. “We want to make sure that we’re creating opportunity and skills and expectations around what you can expect and what the workforce might expect of you, because Pittsburgh has always led when it comes to the trades and building and making stuff.”

PIT2Work’s innovative training-to-work approach supports the region’s workforce by reducing barriers and creating access to career paths in the construction trades. More than 100 individuals from six counties throughout western Pennsylvania have gained access to the trades through PIT2Work.

Among the eighth cohort, participants expressed interest in becoming carpenters, electricians, iron workers, operating engineers and sheet metal workers. One member of the class had already started working.

“This is a perfect time to get into the building trades right now. You are making a great decision,” said Chuck DeMore, apprentice coordinator for Sheet Metal Workers Local Union #12. Fourteen of their members came through Introduction to the Construction Trades.

PIT2Work is made possible by the partnership between ACAA, the ACAA Charitable Foundation, Citizens Bank, The Heinz Endowments, Pittsburgh Gateways, Trades Futures, and the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh Gateways / Energy Innovation Center facilitates the Introduction to the Construction Trades course, which equips participants with computer and math skills, technical training, financial literacy, personal and professional development, and health and wellness education. More than 600 people have benefited from Introduction to the Construction Trades in the past decade, with a 98 percent graduation rate and 78 percent employment and acceptance rate into the unions, according to Chaquita Barnett, executive program director at Pittsburgh Gateways.

Facilitators encouraged everyone to let others know about the program and highlighted several families with multiple graduates of the program.

One graduate, Justin Bryant, 28, said the program changed his life.

“I prayed to God and said, “God, can you give me some direction to make me a better person, take care of my family, make me grow as a man?’ I prayed and I prayed, and I came upon this from someone else that was in the last cohort,” Bryant said.

He said he learned more than just construction skills in the program, but things like time and sleep management, as well.

“You’re making something for yourself and from your family, and I’m appreciative of that. I’m grateful to be in this program. I’m grateful to be here,” he said. “I know that the future for me is looking great.”

Bryant plans to become an operating engineer.