Release Date: Tuesday, April 12th 2011

Post-Gazette: Week's events for youths to highlight careers

Week's events for youths to highlight careers

Saturday, April 09, 2011

By Ann Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Young people in the region will have a chance next week to imagine themselves in the careers of their future.

From banking to operating a backhoe, or casting in concrete to creating a robot, for a week The Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board is spotlighting the world of work with special attention to showing young people what it takes to build a career.

While Gov. Tom Corbett is the biggest name of the week, kicking off the event at a breakfast for invited guests in the IBEW hall on the South Side, followed by a panel discussion about work, labor and education, the events that will touch the lives of young people will be those that focus on getting into the labor market and learning what it takes to get a job.

CareerLinks is working with Citizens Bank in four branch locations to help people write resumes and look for work; and then at four CareerLinks locations, Citizens will be helping job seekers with financial literacy.

As part of the week, 30 high school students, 15 each from Peabody High School in East Liberty and George Westinghouse High School in Homewood, will spend three days imagining their futures, job shadowing on Monday, checking out the big equipment at the Construction Career Day on Tuesday and attending a daylong conference on careers on Wednesday.

Construction Career Day will be a four-hour symposium Tuesday for 1,200 high school students who are coming from a 100-mile radius. The event is being held at the Forbes Road Career and Technology Center in Monroeville and will address heavy construction of highways and bridges.

Wednesday will feature a career conference at the Marriott Pittsburgh City Center, Downtown, from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. The earlier part of the day, in which will be the conference on careers for youth, is already booked with 1,500 students from the region. The afternoon job fair is free and will run from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Though targeted for people between 16 and 24 years old, it is open to anyone.

Stefani Pashman, the CEO of the workforce investment board, said the young people should come with a resume if they have one and their "elevator speech," a short description of their goals and why they would be perfect for a job. She said students should be able to tell employers "here's what I am interested in, and here's what I want to do with my life."

On Thursday and Friday, 350 students from 30 schools around Allegheny County will take part in The Future is Mine conference at the August Wilson Center and then tour 17 workplace sites. That conference will continue on Friday when the students lead their own part of the conference.

For more information see www.imaginecareerweek.org/.

Ann Belser: abelser@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699.
First published on April 9, 2011 at 12:00 am

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11099/1138021-28.stm#ixzz1JKJa8ZoL