PIT2Work Graduates Continue Building Community and Their Families

Over the past two years, the PIT2Work program has graduated seven cohorts, meaning more than 100 people have received training and certifications to pursue careers in the trades. But that’s just a fraction of the impact of the initiative at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT).

For Alicia Booker, Director of Workforce Development at the Allegheny County Airport Authority (ACAA), one of the most rewarding things has been witnessing the domino effect.

“We had this inaugural class, individuals who had just started, but then we had relatives, someone’s cousin or someone’s brother, say, ‘He talked to me about the effort, and he showed me his paycheck, and I wanted to be part of that,’” she said.

“When we have graduations, we see the next generation — they bring their kids,” Booker said, adding she’s seen how families can be transformed by someone in the household who is working a good job and really living, not just making it paycheck to paycheck.

“To be able to see that happen, it really has just been incredible.”

It’s those kinds of experiences that drive PIT2Work, a free five-week program hosted by PIT in partnership with Partner4Work and Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation. Graduates receive an OSHA 10-Hour safety certification, PennDOT Flagger certification, Pennsylvania Registered Pre-Apprenticeship certification, and an environmental health and safety certification.

During the last two years, some graduates have stayed to work on the airport’s terminal modernization project, while others have moved on to other construction projects around the region.

Having a connection to the airport was integral to the program, as many of the enrolled individuals had never been to the airport.

“That was important to us that we created something where we could expose individuals to something they didn’t already have exposure to,” said Booker.

Booker said when she was brought on to launch PIT2Work, she knew it would be a one-of-a-kind program.

“I had never heard of an airport having a workforce initiative, let alone a whole workforce development program, wanting to invest in that area,” she said.

“We’ve had enormous success.”

Building inroads

When Brandon Fallin comes home after a shift as an operating engineer with Trumbull Corporation on the Mon Valley Expressway, his 2-year-old son wants to try on his work boots and safety glasses.

For Fallin, his job is a positive experience all around.

“When you accomplish something, it just makes you feel great,” he said. “Then I get to go home and tell my kids. They see dad with his work boots and my shirt, and they love it.”

Fallin graduated from the PIT2Work program last year and is certified in machine fabrication. He learned of the program through the Introduction to the Construction Trades pre-apprenticeship training program at Pittsburgh Gateways and thought he might enjoy it because of his experience working as a molder and metal fabricator.

“I got a feel for the manual labor side of work, and I absolutely loved it, the sense of accomplishment,” he said.

Fallin, 43, was working odd jobs before joining PIT2Work, although he always thought he’d work in education; in his 20s, he worked at a daycare and did an internship as a paraprofessional at an elementary school. He said he had most recently worked as a dispatcher for Amazon and typically got home around 10 or 11 at night.

“Now, I’m able to work 7 to 4:30 or 7 to 5, and I’m able to be home with my family now, because before then I was getting home and everybody was asleep,” he said.

In addition to his 2-year-old son, Fallin has an 11-month-old daughter and an 11-year-old daughter with his fiancée, Devoney. When his oldest daughter was born, Fallin realized odd jobs weren’t going to support his family.

Fallin said to himself: “I need to find a career, an actual career.”

“It was great,” he said of PIT2Work. “I loved it. It got me set up and prepared me for what I’m doing right now.”

Becoming more employable

Devin Hale was building a retaining wall with his uncle when a man approached him with a business card for Ronald Sapp.

“He was picking up his grandkids from daycare, and I was working across the street, and he said, ‘How would you like to make a lot more money?’” Hale, 35, recalled.

His uncle knew Sapp, the Director of Union Relations at Pittsburgh Gateways’ Introduction to the Construction Trades, and soon, Hale was enrolled in PIT2Work.

He was a member of the first cohort and graduated in 2023.

“It was a great experience,” he said. “You got to learn everything you need for the apprenticeship programs, you got your certifications, and everybody was great.”

Because Hale had experience — he’d been doing construction work on and off since he was around 20 — Sapp suggested he go into the Laborers’ Union to get experience, and he signed in as a journeyman. He eventually fulfilled his goal of joining the International Union of Operating Engineers.

“The more I know about something, the more employable I am,” he said.

Hale’s uncle runs his own demolition business, so Hale had been working in the trades, but now he gets benefits, annuity, health care and a pension, he said.

“It’s a lot more money than what I was making,” he said.

Today, Hale’s working with Northeast Paving on the construction project on Interstate 376. He said he can run heavy equipment: pavers, asphalt rollers and skid steers.

He’s currently in his second year as an apprentice and has learned three of the five machines (excavator, backhoe and hydro-vac truck) he needs to graduate before the end of his fourth year.

After he graduates, he’d like to get married and buy a house.

“I’m glad I’m doing what I’m doing now,” he said.

Sapp said getting workers into unions means they’re not only getting better wages and benefits, but they’re getting stability.

“They’re learning their trade, which no one can take away from them,” he said. “If you have good, trained people, who are going to be there, be on time … that’s huge for contractors. The contractors are finding themselves able to bid on more projects now because they have trained, capable people they can depend on.”

PIT2Work in the future

Booker said seeing Hale graduate on a Friday, start work on a Monday, and start on a promising career path shows her what an enormous success the program has been.

“The employment they had before just didn’t offer them that opportunity,” she said of the graduates. “Those jobs, construction, those are union jobs, which means they also have benefits, so you’re building toward the future now.”

She said that even now that the terminal has opened, there will still be jobs for PIT2Work graduates at the airport.

“We’re evolving PIT2Work to expand just beyond construction,” she said. “We will still offer construction cohorts, just not as many as we did this year. We also see some growth in the energy field, so we’re looking at building out what those energy careers are going to be to help support the region.

“Some construction projects, they might start an initiative … but here we really are investing in that and say, this is great, but now what else can we do? How do we work with schools, how do we work with youth, how do we engage at other companies across the region? That’s more than even I anticipated.”