Featured photo: Judith Ghebremichael, 53, at her station in the metals fabrication and welding program inside Esperanza’s Tec Centro North Philadelphia building.
Andre Rodriguez, 32, said he worked “a dead-end job” until this summer, when a pastor at his church handed him a flyer for a new workforce development program in North Philadelphia.
“I wanted more out of my life,” said Rodriguez, who grew up in Kensington . “[I] wanted to find a career that would be able to propel me and to do greater things.”
The flyer led Rodriguez to the free training program for in-demand jobs in the trades. The initiative is a partnership between Esperanza, a nonprofit based in North Philadelphia where instruction is taking place; Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology; and the Tec Centro Workforce Network.
“I decided to give it a shot and see if it would change my life,” Rodriguez said at a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony for the workforce training site for the program.
Rodriguez is part of the first cohort of students enrolled in the new program, which is intended to train currently unemployed or underemployed people. Students opt for one of four training tracks designed toward qualifying for in-demand, high-wage jobs. Each track has room for 12 students per six-month session.
“What you basically have is people who are looking for an opportunity to improve their situation,” said the Rev. Danny Cortés, executive vice president at Esperanza. “They may be in a job and they don’t see a future in that job. They don’t see a family-sustaining wage in that job. They’re hustling, but the hustle ain’t long-term.”
Rodriguez is in the metals fabrication and welding track. Students can also choose to pursue training in HVAC, plumbing, or facility maintenance technology.
After the program, Rodriguez said, his goal is to land an apprenticeship with Navy Yard shipbuilder Hanwha. Philadelphia has been facing a welding shortage recently, and Hanwha has been expanding hiring.
“We’ve already engaged with Hanwha in discussion about what we’re doing,” Cortés said. “They have appetite to hire given their needs.”
Beyond Hanwha, Rodriguez is also open to applying his new skills at a small fabrication shop. Both of those goals are ones he “never thought would be possible,” he said. “But now it seems like it’s becoming more apparent that I’ll be able to do that.”
Esperanza, founded in 1986, today employs roughly 800 full-time staff. The faith-based nonprofit’s services span education, workforce, immigration, and housing. Esperanza has a charter school, an arts and culture center, and a college where students can earn associate’s degrees. It also offers a housing counseling service.
Esperanza wanted to launch a trades training program, but the organization did not have the technical expertise, Cortés said. When the opportunity arose to bring this new program to life, “we jumped in,” he said.
What was once a storage area in the ground floor of Esperanza’s building at North Fifth and West Bristol Streets now includes a computer lab, welding stations, a drafting room, and more.
Cortés said the program puts students on a career track in industries with opportunity for growth, noting that as people retire, the demand rises for new workers to refill the workforce pipeline.
“Esperanza’s been in this neighborhood for many years,” Cortés said.
The new program is “just adding one more way to make opportunities available and produce what we call transformative moments for folks who are trying to improve their lives,” he said.
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