National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: Construction and Transportation

City of Phoenix Housing Department: Economic Initiatives & The Step-Up Apprenticeship Program

The Challenge:

To fill construction and high tech jobs in the Phoenix area with skilled workers.

The Solution:

Focus training efforts in public housing in order to help residents find and retain jobs while providing employers with qualified and enthusiastic workers.

The Partners:

City of Phoenix Housing Department provides low-income subsidized housing, job training programs and work experience for its residents.

Maricopa Skill Center is a vocational community college in Phoenix that provides training for program participants.

Quality Integration Services (QIS), a subsidiary of MicroAge Inc., is a multi-billion dollar high technology company specializing in technology product and service procurement for businesses. QIS provides apprenticeships for public housing residents.

Economic Development and Supportive Services, a U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-funded program, provides supportive services for clients to eliminate barriers to employment.

The Story:

In the minds of most people, job training and public housing are independent services meeting unrelated needs. The City of Phoenix is working to change that notion.

In Phoenix, 75 percent of public housing residents are single heads of households, the majority of which are women without the skills necessary for stable, long-term employment. Their annual income averages $7,000.

As part of Phoenix's "Economic Initiatives" package, the City created the Step-Up Apprenticeship program, which is designed to provide these disadvantaged public housing residents with personal and technical job skills.

The Step-Up Apprenticeship program focuses on training computer technicians and building maintenance and construction workers. After completing a three-week job readiness course that covers topics in anger management, money management, and sexual harassment, participants choose a vocation and begin the jobs-skills instruction phase of their training. This is followed by a paid apprenticeship.

Building maintenance and construction trainees participate in "hands on learning" through the Maricopa Skill Center where they attend courses in everything from carpentry and plumbing to electrical systems and wall-boarding. Skill instruction averages three to four months; apprenticeships run 12 to 18 months. Since its inception in 1994, 30 Step-Up participants have completed a facilities maintenance apprenticeship and now hold full-time jobs earning an average of $13 an hour. Over the past five years, there has been a 93 percent retention rate. Many of the graduates have moved out of public housing and purchased their own homes.

Those training to be computer technicians complete an initial three-week job readiness course, then participate in a year long combination of skills instruction and paid apprenticeship provided by QIS. Trainees receive their A+ certification and learn computer repair, systems configuration, and hardware and software installation on site. Participants simultaneously apprentice with employee mentors to gain on-the-job experience. QIS also provides technician apprentices with their own personal computer. Program graduates earn starting wages of $15 an hour.

A Model of Innovation:

By targeting public housing residents, Step-Up reaches a population largely unrepresented in the workforce and most in need of skills training. Notices in rental statements and word of mouth bring eager residents to Step-Up's door. As a partner, the City of Phoenix's Economic Development and Supportive Services Program provides services that most often keep public housing residents from finding successful employment: personal and family counseling, transportation subsidies, child care, financial assistance for purchasing tools, and referral services for other work-related needs.

Contacts:

Molly Weiss
Economic Initiatives Coordinator
City of Phoenix Housing Department
830 E. Jefferson
Phoenix, Arizona 85034
602-261-8946 (p)
602-534-2584 (f)
mweiss@ci.phoenix.az.us

Dave Mauldin
Quality Integration Services
525 W. Alameda
Tempe, AZ 25282
1 800-544-8877 (p)
480-366-8383 (p)
480-366-7018 (f)