News

Partners in Philadelphia Host After School Prog. for Recruiting Future Frontline Transit Workers

Posted June 2014

SEPTA, TWU Local 234, Keystone Development Partnership and school partners continued their cutting edge work on career pathways in Philadelphia as they kicked off a Careers in Public Transportation After School Program at Mastbaum Vocation and Technical High School.  The programs builds on the partners’ innovative summer youth program, detailed in the Center’s “Pathways to Equity: Effective Transportation Career Partnerships” report.  The three-week Spring program is a pilot that prepares students to apply for the eight-week SEPTA TWU Summer Youth Program.  It will set the stage for a longer and more in-depth semester-long After School initiative at Mastbaum in the Fall.  That program will use a curriculum developed by SEPTA, TWU Local 234 and KDP in consultation with Mastbaum CTE teachers.

At the first session on May 23, TWU and KDP representatives provided an introductory session about careers in public transit and working in a union environment for over twenty Mastbaum students from electrical, auto, and welding classes. Sixteen students attended the second session on May 29.  TWU Local 234 Business Agent Juan Barrow, Local 234 Apprenticeship Coordinator John Johnson, Jr. and KDP Director Stuart Bass presented a slide show developed by SEPTA on the work of bus maintenance mechanics.  Students were given guidance on how to present at the interview for the Summer Youth Program and how to behave once they were on the job.  The TWU representatives discussed how to work on a union job and what it means to be a union member.  Two students who participated in the Summer Youth Program in 2013 talked about their experiences.  Jonathan Jacobs from Philadelphia Academies, Inc. worked with Mastbaum principal Dr. David Bowman to support the program.

For the final program session Thursday June 5, 2014, six students toured the Frankford Shop at SEPTA, hosted by SEPTA Maintenance Manager Tom Lay.  Juan Barrow, John Johnson, Jr., Stuart Bass and SEPTA Trainer Kevin Troy helped give the students an inside view of bus maintenance at SEPTA.  This site visit prepared the students for the SEPTA TWU Summer Youth Program that starts on June 30, 2014.  In this long-running SEPTA-TWU Local 234 summer program, selected high school students will participate in a paid eight-week, forty hours per week hands-on shop-based experience, supported by SEPTA trainers and TWU Local 234 mentors.