- [Narrator] This program is made possible by these major funders (violin music) and by these generous supporters.

(violin music) Thank you.

(violin music) - I'm learning a new language.

(violin music) - I like bulldozers.

(violin music continues) - You got to care about the patients.

(cement smearing) - To me it's soothing, it's just something about laying the brick and the concrete (violin music) - You're checking for any looseness.

(tool banging) - [Narrator] These men and women are at the leading edge of an emerging trend in the workforce.

Adults who pivot from one career to an entirely new one.

It's known as re-skilling.

A way in which workers are finding a new place in the fast evolving economy.

Some are looking for better pay.

- The sky is the limit.

- [Narrator] Others are moving on from sectors that are struggling.

- A service industry career, a bartender, or someone who works in a restaurant.

- [Narrator] In previous generations, employees might have stayed at the same job until retirement, but that tradition is fading.

- [Worker] I just feel like things are different nowadays.

- [Narrator] Some data suggests, a person entering the workforce now may change jobs or careers as many as a dozen times over their lifetime and with change will come challenges.

- Going back to being a student is very tough.

- [Narrator] And, new opportunities.

- We're seeing more women going into construction.

- [Narrator] Meet the people who are finding a new road forward.

Hear the stories of why they chose a different path, and learn what it takes to get ahead in the workforce of the future.

For many, that will mean starting over.

(upbeat techno music) - [Ron] My name is Ron Coleman, and for six years I've been a DJ around Pittsburgh.

(upbeat techno music) - [Narrator] He's known as DJ Ari Cole, and he made a living setting the mood at weddings and parties, and in dance clubs.

- [Ron] I am always trying to keep the energy up, keep the momentum going.

(upbeat music) This is Brillobox.

This was where I DJ'd once a month.

We threw big parties there, people danced, and laughed, and it was just a great time.

- [Narrator] Two months into the pandemic, Brillobox closed for good.

Gigs for weddings and parties dried up, too, and Ron knew he had to make a change.

- Once we realized that the pandemic was going to be longer than the couple of weeks that we originally thought, I knew it was time to gain a new skill.

- [Narrator] And so, in this apartment within arm's reach of the vinyl records and turntables that were the tools of his trade, Ron is training for his next career to be a computer coder.

- [Teacher] System, and then depending on whether you're on Windows or Mac, clear or CLS.

- [Narrator] Ron is a student at Academy Pittsburgh, a for-profit school that teaches the basics of coding in 12 weeks.

Coders invent and write the software programs that run the apps on our phones, our watches, and games.

Jobs are plentiful.

- You can ask for direct feedback on things that you have just did.

- [Narrator] When we met Ron in March, 2021, he was three weeks into the virtual classes.

- [Ron] One, zero.

- [Teacher] Yeah, right.

And we're just going to follow that pattern all the way around.

Thanks, Ron.

- [Ron] No problem.

- [Narrator] On the other side of the screen and a dozen miles away, Jean and John Lang are guiding Ron and his classmates as they learn the language of coding.

The work is intense.

- [Teacher] Everyone ready for some brain hurting?

- [Ron] The first week, my brain was throbbing after each class.

I mean, it was just so much information being thrown and it's tough, but I love it.

I like the challenge.

I hope to matter, and I hope to really have committed to the craft.

- [Narrator] This was the video Ron submitted when he applied to coding bootcamp.

Starting out, he knew it would be challenging to return to the classroom at age 33.

- The most difficult part of the transition is switching, honestly, just switching gears.

I've been out of school since 2013 - [Markese] I think in life you're always pivoting.

You're always going to have a speed bump.

- Markese Long is the director of outreach and inclusion at a workforce development organization called Partner for Work.

- Tech is probably the biggest pivot that we are seeing.

- [Narrator] As Ron can attest, the hospitality and entertainment industries have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic.

That is presenting new opportunity for jobs in technology, particularly for black and brown people.

- I think what you're starting to see now as the country starts to move into this technology-centric environment I think you're starting to see high schools, you're starting to see trades, you're starting to see workforce boards.

Looking at that stem education as an opportunity to create for those, especially, black and brown individuals to get access to those jobs.

- We usually see adults who have had some kind of career before, and that might have been a professional career where they were an accountant or a lawyer or a sales person.

- [Teacher] Make another array.

- Their job that they were good at is going away.

It's a tough transition for people getting them through that is a large part of what academy is about.

- Let your team know that that's what you're trying to work on so they can help you work on it.

- [Producer] Do you have to be good at math to do well at coding?

- Do you have to be good at math to do well at coding?

A lot of our students are afraid that that's the truth, but it's not.

If they enjoy puzzle solving, if they enjoy making things that people use, I absolutely believe that you can do coding.

- [Narrator] 12 weeks is not long enough for a student to become expert in coding, but graduates are qualified for entry level positions, - Big corporate ones, big contracting firms medium sized companies, small startups - [Narrator] Coding boot camps offer an alternative to a four-year college degree.

At Academy Pittsburgh, students can pay tuition upfront or after they're hired through an income share agreement.

When the graduate earns a salary of at least $45,000 a year, they start paying it back.

- Then you owe 10% of your monthly income to Academy.

You pay for 24 months.

- [Producer] So far, have there been moments you have second guessed this decision?

- Yes.

There are lots of moments where I second guess it.

And the thing that I lean on is the commitment that I made to learning this craft.

It's not easy and sometimes when you're in class and they're throwing different concepts at you, it's easy to forget that you're not supposed to grasp this immediately.

I lean on a lot of the things that I've learned from my parents, my mom being someone who got her master's later in life, my dad who worked at high levels of corporate America or even my friends who we push each other to get better at our crafts.

- [Narrator] Ron expects to get a coding job right out of bootcamp.

He hopes to get back to deejaying as a side gig.

- [Producer] Where's the skill overlap between being a DJ and coding?

- The main overlap is in problem solving.

You can have equipment that is tested at home.

It works, everything sounds right.

And then you get to a venue and something's not working.

(high intensity rap music) It's hard to make a change like this.

I went through a period where I had to kind of mourn the loss of a career that I had been building to get to for years.

I was ready to commit to a new craft that was at least pandemic-safe.

You really have to lean on that commitment, that drive, because it is going to be okay.

(relaxing guitar music) - [Kyleigh] It's definitely different and I like being outside the most would be my big thing.

I could never see myself sitting in an office all day - Kyleigh Dominelli chose a career, moving earth, a job that's as far from an office as she could get.

- But I like bulldozers.

I mean, I always hated them whenever I first started, but then I was actually in one for a while when I learned to love them.

- On this day, Kyleigh was part of a crew that was shoring up a slope damaged by a landslide.

At age 25, she has finally landed in her right job, but it took some missteps to get here.

- We are where I grew up.

We're at my barn where my horses and my goats are.

This is the one place that I love most in the world.

- [Narrator] After high school, Kyleigh entered nursing school, switched to a veterinary tech major, and worked in a veterinary office.

- [Kyleigh] It just wasn't my thing.

I'd go to work every day and I would work with animals, and then by the time I would come home, after 12, 13-hour shifts and my animals would be excited to see me, and I'm like, I was just around you guys all day.

I don't want to be around more animals.

- [Narrator] Her nontraditional pivot was partly inspired by her sister, a diesel mechanic in the military.

Kyleigh opened her mind to options in the trades and became an apprentice with the operating engineers, Local 66.

That's a union-sponsored program that trains people to run the heavy rigs used on construction sites.

- [Producer] What was it like to be a student again?

- It was kind of, not degrading, but it made you kind of feel like you're starting over and you're like, am I making the right decision?

Am I going to fail at this, too?

Am I going to regret this?

(heavy machinery) - [Narrator] Now, three years into her training, she has no regrets, even though she is usually the only woman who is an operator at the work site.

- I've always, luckily, been treated with respect, and they're all helpful and want to teach.

I've never felt that I was less because I was a woman.

- It is definitely a man's world, construction, but we're working to try and change that.

- [Narrator] Although women make up about 10% of the construction industry workforce, most of those are in office and support jobs.

Only about 3% of construction field site workers are women.

- I think there's a stigma in construction to where women can not do construction.

However, I think there are a lot of opportunities in construction for both women and men.

(heavy machinery) - My hope is that some of these schools or trades are out there actively recruiting some of the women and try to encourage them to go into some skilled labor.

- [Narrator] In another year, Kyleigh will graduate from apprentice to journeyman, where average salaries can reach $65,000 a year - Best decision that I could have made I would just wish I would have done it sooner.

Look into the trades, they're honestly great.

A lot of them you make more than you would with a college degree.

You don't have to pay for it, they pay you to learn.

(relaxing guitar music) They all work different, but you'd go to school a couple of days a week, a couple days a month, and then you have four or five-year apprenticeship and you're out on your own making a great living.

(relaxing guitar music) So now I come home from work after being on the construction site all day and I see my animals and I'm like, I missed you guys so much.

I'm excited to see them.

(guitar music) - [Mike] Everyone wants to stay in their comfort zone.

But when you leave that comfort zone, there's a lot of opportunity out there.

I'm just excited to see where it takes me.

- [Narrator] In fog or sunshine, Mike Jackson arrives early for the apprenticeship that will carry him to a new and better life.

- It takes a lot of time, a lot of patience, second chances, third chances.

- [Narrator] Mornings at the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh start in a circle where students set the tone for a day of hands-on learning.

The nonprofit school was started in 2010 with the goal of teaching the construction trades to people often considered unemployable, including some with criminal records or who had served time in jail.

- When they look into someone's eyes and know that they want to change their trajectory of their life.

They're looking for an opportunity and we have some of the best talent and some of the best people that walk through our doors and they are our success.

- [Narrator] The Trade Institute began teaching masonry and has grown to include carpentry.

In 11 years, the program has trained and found jobs for more than 600 people.

This crew was headed to a private home in Fox Chapel where they are building planter boxes.

- [Mike] We were just mixing some concrete four footers.

The ground over there is pretty level, but Mr. Mark decided on putting some footers in.

- [Narrator] Mr. Mark is instructor Mark Shadle, who himself had to pivot to a new career when his family construction company shut down.

- I went from being a boss with that mindset to now have to be a teacher.

So it's been a challenge for me, but it's been very rewarding to see these guys what they're doing and we've worked with them for almost five weeks and see how far they've come.

- A couple of years ago was a lot less mature, let's start with that.

I didn't really know what I wanted.

I was doing customer service work, great company, great job.

I wasn't too happy with it, though.

I have some buddies who went through the program before, so I gave it a shot, I signed up, maybe in 15 years I'll have my own company.

I can come to TIP and hire some guys.

(hammering) - There's a huge gap with generations between those individuals that are using their hands and historically high schools have always pushed college.

What's the easiest thing to do if you have a criminal background?

From a background check perspective, it's always going to be construction.

- We don't let anyone walk out our doors making less than $15 an hour.

So salary range between $15 an hour to about 20 to $23 an hour - [Narrator] About 70% of students complete the program and get jobs and learning a trade can place a worker on a path away from incarceration.

The recidivism rate in Pennsylvania is about 42%.

At the Trade Institute, only about 2% of students end up back in jail.

- It costs about $50,000 to care for an inmate for an entire year in a county jail.

Little under $8,000 can bring them into our program for 11 weeks and get them $15 an hour or better job and now they're paying taxes.

- I'm just trying to find my way back into society.

- [Narrator] By all accounts, Dennis Craighead is doing just that.

Feeling hopeful, despite what is on his record.

- I've learned you gotta take responsibility for your actions.

I'm one of them type of guys who I just roll with the punches.

That's where all of my stress and anxiety come from is just finding out when and where and what to do with my life.

We're not all bad guys.

Some of us make a bad decision or we're at the wrong place at the wrong time and just get caught up.

I have three kids that I want to take care of dearly.

- [Narrator] With his new skills, he hopes to start a business building retaining walls.

- I'm only 32.

I still got a lot of life left.

- There's always a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, and don't give up on yourself.

Your circumstances in life don't define who you are.

(relaxing guitar music) - You have to think of what is it if your family members are on that plane and that's how you need to work in every aspect of the job.

- [Narrator] Crystal Daughtry is 33 and she's training to be an Aeronautics Maintenance Technician.

- When I see a plane fly in the sky I think of all the different people involved to make sure that plane is safely flying in the air.

- [Narrator] Crystal soon will graduate from the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, a private two-year technical school that prepares students for careers in aviation maintenance and aviation electronics technology.

- In this field, you're constantly learning.

There's always going to be innovations, new things to learn.

(guitar music) - [Narrator] It is a sharp turn away from the anthropology career she thought she would have.

(guitar music) - When I was in college I had studied abroad in the middle east, predominantly in Egypt.

So we learned Arabic, we also learned different religious and cultural studies, so looking at Christianity in the middle east.

- [Narrator] Back at home, she needed a job, any job, and so she signed on with an airline working in customer service.

- Any ticketing errors that may come, we have to be trained to know how to fix those, also trained to work in gates, boarding flight.

If your bag gets lost at the airport, you come talk to me.

- [Narrator] She likes airport work, but never considered working on an aircraft until a colleague mentioned it.

- Just that one question, "Have you ever thought of becoming a mechanic?"

And just me being someone that's interested in trying new things, seeing what's out there available to me, I just started doing the research.

So I'm just going to grab the tools that we would need.

The most difficult thing for me is trusting myself and trusting that I know.

That is one thing I've gotten a lot from my teachers, trust you know what you're doing.

You're a good student.

Just trust yourself.

I had a very positive experience here being one of the few females or one of the few African-American students.

I hope to inspire people to push past that barrier of, no, I can do this too.

- The one thing that I have learned about Pittsburgh is that it's a who-you-know kind of town and I think as we build our networks I think we all have that one person that can connect us to someone who can connect us to another architect.

- [Crystal] The harness leads are very worn.

We would have to replace these.

- [Narrator] Crystal hopes to move to Atlanta and work on engines or as an aircraft inspector.

- And even as we begin to recover from COVID-19, we're seeing students leave here with multiple job offers, really, regardless of their age.

- [Narrator] For now, Crystal is busy, from full-time work helping customers getting on and off planes to full-time learning about the planes themselves.

- There's a reason I wake up to come here after working a eight, nine-hour shift the night before getting off at 2:00 AM and I gotta be back here by seven or eight in the morning.

Just trust that you can do it, because you can.

If it's on my heart to do it, you can.

(relaxing guitar music) - [Ed] So how's things going today?

- [Narrator] It's morning at UPMC Mercy Hospital and Ed Hetherington is making the rounds to check on patients in the spinal cord injury and rehab unit.

- [Ed] We always look forward to getting to know them, getting to understand what their problems are.

- Ed is really a good guy.

He is taking care of me and always checking on me, anything I need and it's very respectful and I really appreciate it.

- [Narrator] For more than a decade, Ed has been working as a registered nurse walking the polished floors that must seem a million miles away from the more rugged path he walked as a young man.

- [Ed] My fiance, now my wife, would drop me off here at the front entrance and the gang would just walk in down through the tunnel and come up the other side.

- [Narrator] In 1979, Ed began work at the Westinghouse Airbrake Foundry.

He was 19 and part of a team of young men who poured hot iron into molds to make locomotives brakes.

- Dirty, hot, hot, work.

Yes, it was.

That's what we did growing up that we all went and worked in the mills.

- [Producer] So here we have your wedding picture.

Tell me about these two kids.

We dated all through high school, got engaged on our high school graduation, and two years later, we got married.

- [Narrator] Ed passed up a college football scholarship to work in the mill.

It was a good job, and Ed had money in his pocket.

- We were living the dream.

We had everything going for us at that point.

We all had brand new cars.

We thought it would be forever.

- [Narrator] But forever didn't last for long.

In the early 1980s, the iron and steel industry began its decline and layoffs became frequent.

With a family to support, Ed left the mill to work as an Emergency Medical Technician and then in hospitals as an entry level Patient Care Technician.

- It's just his personality to take care of people.

And I said we talked about it and said you should just go to be a nurse.

Go back to school.

- [Narrator] So at age 43, Ed went to college to earn his RN degree.

- [Ed] Everybody feeling all right?

- [Narrator] This steelworker would re-skill during an era when the term re-skill was rarely heard in the world of workforce development.

He's a pioneer reminding people then and now to stay the course.

- Everybody told him you're never going to get through nursing school.

It's too hard.

You can't do all of this and get through.

- [Narrator] As timing would have it, Ed was in college at the same time his daughters were in college.

- They continue to laugh about that because, when you look around the classroom, you go, I guess I'm their dad, too.

I never thought that I would ever come out of the steel mill, and then I thought I would never be a nurse.

When I graduated and passed my boards it couldn't have been any better feeling.

It was amazing.

Hey, what's going on?

- [Narrator] In the decade when Ed first entered the mill, only about 2% of registered nurses were men, now that number has risen to 12%.

He went from a workplace that was mostly men to a workplace that's mostly women, a difference that doesn't matter to him.

- A lot of folks would say, if they knew me, they would say, "you went into nursing?"

Because I was kind of that rough guy, I didn't really take a lot of backtalk, so just kind of thinking about that, and then the role that I do now is pretty unbelievable and it's something that I've always wanted to do.

It was something that I always had in my heart.

Let me know if you need anything, okay?

Some of our patients are here for a month or over a month.

We really get to know them.

- I'm actually planning probably to move to a different rehab facility to get some more advanced treatment, but I'm definitely gonna follow up with everybody here.

I've made some friends here.

Hopefully I'm not in a chair anymore, I can walk in and tell everybody hello.

(picking guitar) - [Narrator] He hopes to get back on his feet again and hopes to come back to visit Ed, a man who changed course in mid-life and is living a different dream now.

- I'm doing something that I love, something I care about, something that we could make a difference as a team.

I love going to work every single day.

Morning, ladies.

We're not going to be millionaires, but we're going to be okay.

I'll be able to take care of our family.

And it is my dream and that's my statement, and everybody knows that I'm living the dream.

(relaxing guitar music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] It's been said, there are no second acts in American life, but that's just not true.

As these men and women know, a new career, second and third chances and a better life are out there waiting.

- Show up on time, have a good attitude, put in the work, do whatever you can to help.

Having a good attitude is the number one thing.

(upbeat music) - Shoot for the stars.

Never give your dreams up.

(upbeat music) - It's where you're going and how you adapt to those changes.

Starting over, it's grateful.

(upbeat music) - The trainings are are out there, so just take advantage of what those trainings are based on your interest.

(upbeat music) - It felt like I'm finally in a place where this is what I want to do.

This is what I hope is going to be my career, I finally found my career.

So it felt good.

(upbeat music) - You have to say to yourself, this is the path that I'm going to go.

Do your homework on it and then once you're sure, commit, just go for it.

(upbeat music) - I got a new gig, but I'm still a DJ at heart, so I picked a song to end the show with.

I want to wish everybody good luck and let's go.

(upbeat techno music)