Funding for this program was provided by a grant from BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

And also by CNX resources.

With additional support from these generous funders.

[Music Plays] Very good!

[Construction Sounds] We can pretty much make almost anything.

[Saw Cutting] I like working my hands.

We put these Christmas ferns in the ground.

Your tootsies are cold.

When I'm exhausted.

At the end of the day, it's a good thing.

There's volatile gas that everyone seems to be afraid of.

I got my dream job here.

You have employers on one end saying we can't find people.

And people say I can't find a job or get to that job.

A lot of it is is about exposure and giving students opportunities outside of the classroom to get a taste of what is going to be the future for that.

The future of work is something that I think is a really dominant theme in education right now.

As we prepare students for what work will look like in ten years or in 20 years.

I'm not one of those people that, you know, can sit in the class constantly and then not know what you're going to end up doing.

Who can go out of high school, make $50,000 a year?

Not many people!

We want to make sure we're preparing our students to be successful for this future economy.

[Music Plays] I am the chief executive officer of partner for work.

Our main job is bringing people together to make the connections around training or in jobs.

There are 60 plus universities, community colleges, technical schools and training facilities in the Pittsburgh region.

The employment situation in this region is reaching a critical juncture.

Every year, 29,000 workers retire, but only 26,000 workers join the workforce.

Every year, the job market increases by 5000 positions, which brings the shortfall close to 8000 workers in ten years that could reach 80,000 workers.

By increasing awareness of a career educational opportunities, we can begin to reverse this trend.

In this region, there are many growing industries that are in need of workers health care, manufacturing and construction technology.

If you stretch a career thinking and pathways earlier, you can start to pinpoint where exactly to go.

[Music Plays] Alexander Hamilton is arguably one of the most influential people in America.

He was an amazing leader and he helped guide us to win the weather there in war.

My name is Destany best.

I'm currently a sophomore Nazareth Prep, and I want to become a chemical engineer when I grow up.

Since our last meeting, we did our candy four days a week.

I'm at school taking regular classes and one day a week I'm at my internship.

The candy ground was working.

Internship.

An opportunity for students to get on the job experience and careers that interest them.

You don't have to be a college student to do an internship.

Ask your teacher, a counselor about how you can get involved.

Well, at the beginning of the year, we take a quiz to see what our interests are because it's a college and career prep school, so they try and help us to get what we want to do.

Last year I went to UPMC this year in my coffers.

I appreciate that I'm at coffers because I get to experience chemical engineering head on with chemistry.

I love it and I'm really good at it.

I just appreciate that there's a lot for me to learn.

Probably the most unique thing about the school is the internship program, and this is something that over 30 high schools in the US are doing, but we're the first high school in Pittsburgh to make it part of the four year curriculum.

The purpose is to introduce students to different career paths while they're still in high school, to get them to explore different paths, to also help them build networks with professionals who may be able to help them when they either graduate from high school or go on to college, or go on to get a job.

The internship gives them the opportunity to explore what Pittsburgh needs now.

Here are just a few of many jobs in engineering!

Architect, Mechanical drafter, Electronics technician, Electrical engineer, civil engineer, industrial engineer, mechanical engineer and chemical engineer.

At the Chemical Engineering lab, I did a softening point test which helps determine at what poin their chemical goes from a solid to a liquid, and I did a thermal expansion test where they that's just the tester machines to make sure the machines are working at.

Koppers headquarters is located downtown.

I mostly job shadow, but like I learned a lot in the fields that I go to like I learned about accounting.

We place our freshman students, typically with other nonprofit organizations, to help them build their soft skills.

Here are just a few of many soft skills!

Strong work ethic, Positive attitude, Self-confidence, ability to accept criticism, Ability to learn from criticism, and good communication skills.

We have students working in places like HR, in banks, in the energy industry and law firms healthcare.

So really reflective of what Pittsburgh needs.

I'm always pleasantly surprised of how well the students do in a professional workforce.

They're getting exposed to the mechatronics program.

I think that internships are important to get from a young age, because then when you graduate, you're not going in blind, like you know what it's about.

Most kids my age don't really know what they want to do.

And when I tell people that I know what to do and like what college I want to go to, they're really surprised because they compare me to themselves.

It's really important to get these internships.

I am a master's student at the Robotics Institute.

I went to high school at the school pretty close to CMU, actually.

We always did STEM extracurriculars and we were all very motivated in that sense.

So there were always opportunities.

And one of them was First Robotics, and we wanted to create an all girls team that kind of inspired women to take the lead on doing those technical skills and challenges.

I knew I was interested in kind of science and math, and I never had the idea of, I'm on a robotics team, maybe I should do robotics because it wasn't really that big of a field back then.

So I started my undergrad here at CMU doing electrical and computer engineering.

Kept in touch with robotics throughout my undergrad career, and then one summer I did it full time.

I just stayed in lab, did research, and that's kind of how I ended up doing a research master's at CMU and wanting to pursue a PhD in the future.

I work in manipulation, and that involves anything that interacts with the objects that can really be applied anywhere, whether it's like assisting elderly care or being in like hospitals or, you know, just helping people anywhere and everywhere.

We put an Allen key, so a random object in a box and we shake the box randomly.

And the idea is by the end of it we know exactly where it is.

And that's really helpful for automation because then, you know, a robot can pick it up from where thinks it is and continue towards some task.

Here are some jobs that you'll find in robotics software developer, Technician, operator, account manager, automation engineer, sale engineer, and robotics engineer.

There's definitely a lot more males in the field.

The number of women is slowly growing.

If robotics isn't your game, doing it as an extracurricular will open you up to a lot of possibilitie and opportunities in the future.

When I think back, there are a lot of things that I did that don't really contribute to what I'm doing today, but they're stil a big part of like, what I know.

I think robotics is going to be around forever because you're always going to have technology, you're always going to want to use it better, and you're always going to want to troubleshoot it or do something with it.

Pittsburgh, has an enormous industry for robotics, especially startups.

There's even just a website dedicated to all robotics startups in Pittsburgh, and it's only growing larger.

It's really great to be in Pittsburgh, especially if you're interested in robotics.

[Music Plays] I always love the concept of making something like turn on.

I love how lights turn on.

I love how motors moved and the ability to control those with a computer and software.

Now finally getting into additive manufacturing, additive manufacturing, it's a technology in which you add layers upon layers of material to form a three dimensional object.

Some people call it 3D printing.

My name is Mack Sings.

I'm electrical designer here at the X1 company.

The X1 company is an additive manufacturing company where we specialize in a technology called binder jetting, where we dispense adhesive binder onto a powdered surface, forming a three dimensional part.

We can pretty much make almost anything.

[Music Plays] You've seen it all.

And then someone else has this wild idea, and they're able to produce some part that you're like, oh, I never, never would have thought about printing that.

Know we have these print heads on here.

So, you know, they're going to have three different types of print heads we could possibly put on there.

I actually have two associates degrees, one in electronics and one in robotics from Westmoreland County Community College.

Through high school, I took a lot of engineering courses, took a lot of physics courses and a lot of math courses.

And through college I primarily specialized on robotics and electrical design.

Both of those paired together created the perfect mix for automation, which is a very essential part of additive manufacturing.

Just a few of many jobs in additive manufacturing.

Staff scientist.

Sensor electronics engineer, electronics engineer.

Additive manufacturing technician, research engineer, electrical designer, and lab technician.

Adam manufacturing isn't just limited to industrial parts.

The art and decorative industry is totally caught on with the concept of making things lighter, making things more organic, looking, making things mathematically driven to the point where it even comes down to consumer products like bottle openers.

It's really pushing the boundaries of what these machines can perform.

And a lot of times we always say, oh no, you could never print that.

And we give it a shot and you're like, oh, wow.

The main computer here.

Yeah, we do offer internships here as well.

A lot of the times, as long as you show like a passion, that's what we really look for in this company.

I got this straight out of school.

Yeah.

With my two associates degrees.

I found a wonderful experience here at X1, where I had the opportunity to go off and buy my own condo.

I have a brand new car, had the opportunity to travel all around the United States, different trade shows and different events.

Not only do I have a great paying job, but I have a passion and I have a something.

I love staying here at work till 9 or 10:00 at night.

[Music Plays] This is an American peach tree and it is part of our mature forest here in Pennsylvania.

We like to keep an eye on them because this one, it certainly has had some damage here on this side.

And I'm the senior restoration ecologist with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.

And my job is wonderful.

And I think of it as me and all of the partners that I work with, taking car of the wild spaces in the parks.

I work a lot on both forest health issues as well as watershed health issues.

So we sometimes have diseases that harm acres and acres of woods.

And so those trees have to come down.

And I get the wonderful job of figuring out what to put back in their place and how to really heal that space in the forest.

We're really blessed in Pittsburgh to have a lot of urban forest, and that forest does a lot for us.

I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do in high school, but I knew that I wanted to be outside.

To surprise, I found the little pill bug.

I got my bachelor's of science in ecological and political science, and then I got my master's of science in forest ecology.

Most of the people that are here have an associate's or undergrad or master's degree.

The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy is a nonprofit, and so we are in partnership with the city of Pittsburgh, which is the public sector.

[Music Plays] Public sector.

We often sometimes forget about the municipal jobs that are great middle class jobs.

And this whole career search, there's so much out there.

Here are some jobs in the public sector.

Firefighter, police officer, emergency medical technician, government employee, military service educators, nonprofit staff, AmeriCorps, and Peace Corps.

There are people that I work with that really enjoy working with young people and helping them discove what their career path might be, or we have people who look into the historic preservation side of the park system.

We have people who are doing construction management social media and communications, and we have a very important team of grant writers.

It takes a wide range of people to make this organization run really well.

I don't know what I'm gonna find.

There are a number of best parts of my job.

One of them is that I get to be outside whenever I can or whenever it's needed of me, and I love that.

It's like fuels my soul.

[Tools Clanking] [Music Plays] My name is Andrew Brozerwitz I'm 23 years old.

I'm from Union City, Pennsylvania.

I drove two hours a day to get here.

So we're going to talk about blueprints.

I'm here to learn more about my trade and better myself and my career.

Well, I'm going to Prentice, and it's a four year program.

We go four times a year to class.

The rest of the time we're on the job working.

We get get our weeks off of work, come here, we do our training, and there's certain training we have to do to be able to work.

I like working with my hands.

That's why I chose to join the trades and make a good living and have fun at work as a carpenter here.

I mean, we start out making 18 bucks an hour and sky's the limit from there.

The reason I like being a carpenter is because I can show up on a job.

I can, you know, pou that concrete, build the stairs, and I can drive by the next day and say, hey, I did that.

You know, to help people.

I built that.

The most important skil is your ability to get up and go to work in the morning.

But everything else, if you don't know what they teach you here, you have to keep looking until you find it's tuition free.

It's it's all paid in through the dues.

So you don't pay a penny to come here.

You come here, you come here to learn.

I went to college for five years.

It didn't work for me.

Sometimes college just isn't for everybody.

So I did a little bit of research and I decided this is what I wanted to do.

I'm Chelsea's from Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania.

We get credits all through the apprenticeship.

Every year our pay goes higher until we become journeymen.

So tomorrow we have another class schedule for you.

My dad is a union carpenter.

I've helped him around our house and friends houses all throughout my life.

I realized, you know, that's something I'm good at so I might as well make a career out of it.

And this is the best way to go.

Now I am working in the cracker plant in Monaco.

I'm on the cooling tower, which is it's pretty awesome just to be part of the plan.

It's one of the biggest operations in the world right now.

The cooling tower is actually the biggest in North America.

There obviously are not as many women on job sites, but I completely encourage it.

And just like everyone in the training center, they're all for it.

They want as many as they can get.

So and it's really impressive how how quickly they got you into work.

From my point of view, a lot of teachers pus to go to college and they don't.

They kind of like put the trades on the back burner.

Just a few of many jobs in construction and trades roofer, sheet metal worker, Electrician, cement mason.

Concrete finisher, rotary drill operator, plumber, pipe fitter, steam fitter and carpenter.

You can make just as much, if not more money doing something in the trades than you would in college.

You know, after a four years of college and then you have to pay your money back.

So if I were to do it all ove again, I would start here at 18.

It's really starts blowing pretty good.

We're going to have to get back and reassess the situation here at Columbia.

We really have jobs for everyone.

Whether you have a trade school degree, a high school diploma, a two year degree or a four year degree, we really employ a diverse group of folks.

Today, we're fixing a leak.

It's a routine leak.

I've been here at Columbia Gas for about a year and a half.

I knew people that worked here, and I knew that this was kind of, quote unquote, the place to be.

Well, I hoped that one day I would be here and a couple of years later, tha Have everything about the jobs, always new challenges.

I always see new people, always meet new people.

Excuse you a chance to grow as a not only a person, but as an employee.

Columbia Gas is very similar to other utilities in that we have the barbell effect.

We have folks that have been in the business for 30 years, 35 years, like myself, and then a lot of newer employees.

So is that 30% of our employees exit and head towards retirement.

We need to replace those employees with brand new employees.

These are just a few of many jobs in ENERGY.

Machinist, inspector, welder, truck driver, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and petroleum engineer.

They teach you everything and anything that you might need to know about your job.

There are guys that I work with every day that have never seen a gas line, or knew anything about gas before they came here, and that speaks to the training in itself and the resources that we have.

People don't walk away from our company.

We think for good reason, because we take care of each other.

I make a really good living.

I get to socialize in my work ethic.

It speaks for itself.

I think that I would have started right out of high school.

I really would have.

I think that this job opportunities are endless.

[Music Plays] [Knocks on Door] Yes?

Hi!

Good morning!

Good morning How are you doing, Miss Carolyn?

Nursing was not my first career.

It's actually my second.

Or maybe my third.

Prior to this, I was working in IT, which is information technology, managing servers and computer systems.

But nursing has always been a passion of mine.

I've always enjoyed taking care of people and helping them feel better.

Very good.

Okay, take your time.

You can get into nursing school coming straight out of high school.

You can either take the track of getting associate's degree, which is generally a two year program, or you can go the route of a bachelor's degree, which is four years.

So tell me, how are you feeling?

The nurses do a lot besides just the general passing medications we have to take care of, like, assessments and trying to understand what's going on with the patient, why they're here.

But a lot of times it's a lot more involved in that.

How's that for you?

That's good.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay so I'll be back in a little bit.

Okay.

You have to have an understanding of how the body works, how medications work.

Because you talk to a lot of people.

You talk to the patients, you talk to the patients families.

And most importantly, you talk to the doctors.

Good morning.

Hey.

How are you doing?

Doing okay.

I was saying that nursing is not for the faint of heart.

It takes a lot of dedication, and it takes commitment.

Nursing school in itself.

There's just a lot of information coming at you.

Don't hesitate to ask questions.

Seek every opportunity to be more involved, to get hands on, to get that practice.

And you would be fine.

Oh, and also have really good studying skills.

I need you to help me boost the people in this region.

There are many growing industries that are in need of workers.

Health care is at the top of the list.

Here are just a few health care support jobs nursing assistant, medical assistant, dental assistant, occupational therapy assistant pharmacy aide, home health aide, physical therapist, aide and phlebotomist.

I would say those middle skill health care jobs are what's really, really attractive right now and well-paying.

Here are just a few more jobs in health care.

Radiologic technician, medical and lab technician Pharmacy technician Physician, Physician assistant pharmacist, Dental hygienist.

Occupational therapist, Licensed practical nurse, and registered nurse for ten.

Okay, I work on the pediatric unit of the hospital.

Well, on this floor.

Our population is mainly infant nesting mothers from the NICU, the neonatal intensive care unit.

[Knocks On Door] Hi, Jessica!

How are you?

Good!

And you?!

Good!

Transitioning from being in intensive care to going home on a daily basis.

We take care of anywhere from 3 to 4 infants.

Hi buddy!

I did know what I wanted to do.

I actually wanted to always be a nurse.

Even before I could remember saying so.

My mom told me that I wanted to be a nurse.

The best part about my job is that I get to take care of babies for 12 hours a day, three days a week.

That's the best part.

The worst part is seeing some of the social situations with some of the withdrawal children, and not seeing a particularly bright future for them.

That is really difficult.

Yeah, four already had them, none of mine.

But I know that I'm doin something to help them get home.

[Music Plays] Pittsburgh is changing.

The workforce is changing.

The needs in the workforce are changing.

The first job you you have or will have, it won't define you.

I'm not going to do the same thing for the rest of my life.

I love it right now.

But I've also gotten to change my job within this one job to like, do lots of different kinds of things.

The most important thing that we want our students to take away from their high school experience is how to be prepared to work.

There's not a lot of 15 yea olds that can say that they work for professional companies so that experience is important.

I think my main advice is trying out a lot of extracurriculars.

It's not just about the money, it's about having fun.

I hope you feel a little bit better.

The happiness comes first.

Money always is a bonus, but it shouldn't be the reason that you are in a profession.

[Music Plays] Do things that you're interested in, and don't let anyone tell you that you have to go to college, or that you have to go in a certain direction.

It's never too early to start thinking about what what what your career path was going to look like.

Got to stay warm on a day like today.

All those individual steps will create your problem solving skills.

And then that's what's going to be able to get you the ability to, again, take what's in your mind and be able to create something in real life.

And don't forget.

History has its eyes because, you know, that would be enough.

[Kids Cheer] [Music Plays] Funding for this program was provided by a grant from BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and also by CNX resources, with additional support from these generous funders.