Rasheen Williams knows what many people think when they see a PECO truck in their neighborhood.
“[They] say, Who y’all shutting off?” says Williams, a foreman from South Philly who oversees emergency energy technicians. “The assumption of most people in our communities is, PECO shutting people off, PECO shutting people down. But we’re the ones who want to give you electric. When you work for the company, you can change that narrative, enlighten the community.”
One way to do this: By diversifying its workforce so it more accurately represents the Philadelphians they serve. That means increasing the number of minority employees through a program Williams has supported since its trial launch in 2020.
The PECO Infrastructure Academy is an annual three-day initiative that aims to introduce community members to the company and showcase possible employment opportunities by providing hands-on demonstrations of specific in-the-field jobs. There is no cost to attend. PECO expects to offer its next Academy in October.
PECO, the state’s largest electrical and natural gas provider, has 3,000 full-time employees. To date, the company has offered six Infrastructure Academies: four aimed at adults and two developed for high school juniors and seniors. About 300 people have participated. So far, PECO has hired 35 Academy alums. At least five other participants found industry jobs at other companies. While starting pay rates vary, individuals who follow up the Academy with participation in the 14-week long Helper Pool Pre-Apprenticeship Program start at $21/hour.
Keith Henderson was one of the driving forces behind the Academy’s creation. He joined Michele Wells-Bates on the company’s Workforce Development team headed by Carneisha Kwashie. Henderson says the program shows PECO management is listening to voices inside and outside the company. “There have been many employees that have said to the company, If we want to look like the communities we serve, we have to reach out to the communities we serve,” Henderson says.
Private workforce development saves money
As of March, 2024, the unemployment rate in Philadelphia was 4.2 percent, with an estimated 32,000 individuals seeking jobs, according to data in the most recent quarterly report by Philadelphia Works, a non-profit organization committed building a skilled workforce and connecting workers to jobs. Compare that to a 3.4 percent unemployment rate in Pennsylvania and 4.1 percent in the nation, according to May 2024 data from the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics.
The compiled data further found a “notable” difference in the unemployment rate by neighborhood, with a concentration of unemployed individuals living in North, Northeast and Southwest Philadelphia.
Workforce development on the government level has had mixed reviews. A 2023 Brookings Institute review found that although these programs can improve disadvantaged workers’ outcomes, the gains those workers make are not significant. The federal-state workforce education and training systems are also underfunded and fail to consider supporting the additional training many workers need, according to the review by the non-profit, non-partisan research agency.
Another problem is the lack of oversight when public money is given to private companies to provide workforce development programs. In 2023, The Hechinger Report, a non-profit newsroom, published an article detailing some of these failures. It noted that the U.S. Department of Labor had invested more than $239 million in federal workforce grants between 2018 and 2021, many to non-profits. The Department of Labor’s most recent statistics show that since 2019, more than 7.1 million people have been assisted by such programs. Only 60 percent of those individuals found work after completing an affiliated training.
“I’m passionate about getting people from underserved communities and youth into the trades. With so much infrastructure going on, there’s not enough skilled workers.” — PECO partner Will Bowie
Recent demographic factors indicate there is a growing need for effective and efficient training programs as a growing number of young people are losing confidence in the importance of a college degree. A survey released in March 2024 of high school students and those ages 18 to 30 who were not enrolled in post-secondary education programs found those groups viewed on-the-job training and working towards licenses and certificates as excellent or good value compared to two- and four-year colleges.
Among the reasons respondents cited for not choosing college included an unwillingness to take on debt and the belief that the non-college options would land them better jobs more quickly.
Workforce development programs created in the private sector could save taxpayer money and allow companies to suit the programs to their specific needs. In 2019, the non-profit Mackinac Center for Public Policy looked at workforce development and training programs in its home state of Michigan and concluded the state’s most effective programs came from the private sector.
Former PECO CEO and current Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Exelon Mike Innocenzo is a strong supporter of the company’s Workforce Development efforts and is working with other private companies to coordinate efforts. Innocenzo, who was awarded the Citizen’s Lewis Katz Corporate Citizen of the Year in January, has said the company’s effort is about more than jobs. It’s about supporting families.
“If we are going to move the needle in a city with 24 percent poverty, we need to coordinate and collaborate,” he said earlier this year. “We need to make it easier for folks to be aware of all the jobs that exist — whether for PECO or the health industry, or infrastructure, or down at the Navy Yard. We need to remove the barriers to getting those family-sustaining, life-changing jobs.”
Entrepreneur Will Bowie believes success comes from partnerships, both private and public. He launched Empower Construction, a Ft. Washington-based utility construction company, in 2021. His company started with one employee — him — and a pick up truck. There are now 82 employees and 120 pieces of equipment. Bowie works with corporate citizens like PECO and organizations like workforce training nonprofit OIC Philadelphia. He’s also on the Board of Trustees for Philadelphia Works, the City’s workforce development program. (The City also funds other training programs, including PowerCorpsPHL.)
“I’m passionate about getting people from underserved communities and youth into the trades,” Bowie says. “With so much infrastructure going on, there’s not enough skilled workers.”
Bowie knows from experience such work can be life-changing. He grew up in a single-parent home in Germantown and attended public schools. After high school, he went to Drexel University, but lack of funds forced him to leave after one year. Eager to earn tuition money, Bowie turned towards the trades. He studied electrical work, then was accepted into the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union, Local 126 apprenticeship.
In his first year, he made $75,000. About three years after that, after completing an apprenticeship, he was earning $118,000 annually. That was more than 20 years ago.
“I found out by happenstance [about secure trade jobs],” he says. “There’s not enough awareness or access to our industry.”
Bowie’s company is one of PECO’s partners, meaning Infrastructure Academy participants have the chance to talk with Bowie and other employees during their three-day program. In some instances, those who can’t get into the Academy because of its limited size have the opportunity to go through a similar program at Empower. As with Infrastructure Academy attendees, Bowie’s company lets individuals know what they need to do next to be considered for work that interests them.
“You like operating back hoes? Excavators? Here’s how you go about getting a career in the industry. We can help you,” Bowie says.
Empower is a union shop, so Bowie’s company doesn’t directly hire the people it helps along the path. But the company can help the person become a member of the correct affiliated union so they have the opportunity to work for Empower. In the past three years, it’s helped seven people do just that.
“We’re still a small business,” he says. “I dream of doing something like Infrastructure Academy.”
“This is a career and this is what it’s done for me.”
In fall 2020, PECO knew that it would soon need to hire more energy technicians because of normal employee attrition. But did local job seekers even know what the work entailed?
Henderson suggested PECO host a “show and tell” to demonstrate some of the job requirements. The company publicized the event through its community partners and local tech schools, and has since also talked about it in high schools. “They need to understand what we do,” Henderson says. “Some people think we’re the gas department or the water department. The first thing I ask them is ‘What’s a lineman?’ and they say, ‘Offensive or defensive?’”
The Academy’s first day – actually the events are held in the evening – is an introduction to PECO and its hiring process, which includes an interview conducted via the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Results) method. Academy participants can go through mock interviews and get feedback on their performance. Some participants opt to do this multiple times.
The second and third days feature hands-on introductions to the different PECO jobs by the people who do them. About 70 employees regularly volunteer their time to the Academy.
“We want to be able to give [attendees] the ability to connect with the men and women who do the work, the people who take time out to volunteer, who say, This is a career and this is what it’s done for me,” says Kwashie, senior manager of workforce development at PECO.
Post-Academy, some participants may conclude working in the energy sector doesn’t appeal to them. But perhaps they were intrigued by potential opportunities with PGW, the water department or one of the other agencies that set up information tables during the Academy. PECO’s community partner organizations are also on hand to answer questions or explain what free training programs they offer.
“It’s really about building equitable access and opportunity that connect job seekers, career seekers to opportunities within our company that lead to economic mobility with the goal of economic prosperity in our region.” — PECO’s Carneisha Kwashie
And the Academy participants who see multiple opportunities at PECO? The next steps depend on their area of interest. Some PECO positions require aspiring job seekers to pass an entry exam. The PECO Infrastructure Academy does not provide test prep, but the company works with community partners that offer the services for free. One partner is the nonprofit Beyond Literacy, which offers free, eight-week, evening Zoom classes for aspiring aerial line and underground mechanics who must pass the Construction and Skilled Trade Selection System (CAST) exam.
“Then we see the applications come in,” Kwashie says “People do apply for opportunities here and we do see them get hired.”
Williams, who has been part of the Academy since it began, volunteers his time to teach at the event. He joined the company 18 years earlier, leaving a full-time job in catering management that felt stagnant to enter a field not subject to consumer whims and with clear advancement potential.
“I’m helping people. You called for help. I’m here. I found the problem. I fixed the problem. And now you and your kids are happy,” he says. “That feels better to me than [running] a party of 500 people drinking for five hours.”
Ivy Ziegler, an emergency response supervisor in Montgomery County, is another Academy volunteer. When people ask about her job, they want to know what type of advanced degree they need to have.
Both Williams and Ziegler are African American and work in the public eye. Both have had passersby take note of their work and their skin color. One community member recently commented that Ziegler “was the prettiest person around doing this work.” She also asked Ziegler how she maintained her manicure before adding, “It’s really good to see people who look like me out here.”
“I tell them, You need to be 18 years old and have a high school diploma. Are you mechanically inclined? If you aren’t, do you think you could be?” says Ziegler, on the job for 17 years. “I didn’t think I would be so inclined, but I knew how to use a wrench.”
Working for PECO, “we have a sense that we’re giving back to the community,” Ziegler says. “People need electricity. They need their gas.”
“A job that people love.”
Before attending the fall 2022 PECO Infrastructure Academy, Donald “Pontell” Hunter didn’t think of himself as an engineer, or particularly handy.
But Hunter, 40, was intrigued by the idea of working for PECO when a family member told him about it. He also had a few questions: Was it a good company to work for? “If I was you, I’d be down there on Monday,” one relative noted.
“I’m all about bettering myself and my family situation,” Hunter says. “I came to the Infrastructure Academy with nothing but a great attitude and an open mind.”
“There have been many employees that have said to the company, If we want to look like the communities we serve, we have to reach out to the communities we serve.” — Keith Henderson, PECO Workforce Development.
The hands-on demonstrations most excited Hunter when he attended the Infrastructure Academy. In the air in the bucket truck? Liked it. Learning about gas meters? So interesting. “There wasn’t anything I thought might not be for me,” he says. “Everyone was so willing to let you know this was something obtainable and if you don’t get a job on your first try, keep applying and applying. Don’t give up.”
There weren’t any jobs available when Hunter finished his stint at the Academy. But he kept an eye on the company’s job page and he, like all Academy grads, had Workforce Development Manager Wells-Bates in his corner. Wells-Bates keeps a running list of Academy participants and keeps them updated on opportunities within PECO or one of its contractors.
“We can’t hire everyone, but we have enough connections and contacts so I can point people in the right direction,” she says.
In early 2023, PECO was looking for an underground line mechanic. Hunter got the job.
“This is a job that people love. They love what they’re doing,” he says. “I used to ride the street every day and see electric poles and never actually think about who’s working [on them]. Not now.”
PECO says the Academy is a way to highlight its good corporate citizenship. “From a PECO perspective, it’s really about building equitable access and opportunity that connect job seekers, career seekers to opportunities within our company that lead to economic mobility with the goal of economic prosperity in our region,” says Kwashie. “We serve everyone. We’re looking to find ways to further support our [low and moderate income] customers.”
That commitment is also changing how some citizens view the power company. Wells-Bates says that some Academy participants are pleasantly surprised by just the idea that PECO would care enough to offer these opportunities.
“It’s thought-changing, to see a company come to them and say, These are the steps you need to take. This is what the opportunities are all about,” she says. “They’re thankful. It’s been very eye-opening.”
