Mayor Cherelle L. Parker launched a new program to train community college students for city jobs, a workforce initiative the mayor has referred to as her “baby” and is a top priority for her first year in office.
On Thursday, Parker welcomed a class of 75 students to the first cohort of what will be known as the City College for Municipal Employment, housed at the Community College of Philadelphia. The idea is that students will be recruited into the program with the explicit goal of landing a job in city government, ranging from health workers to vehicle technicians.
The first cohort begins classes this month, just four months after lawmakers finalized the city budget and included $10 million for the program.
“We wanted to make sure we got this program up and running as soon as we possibly could,” Parker said in remarks at a launch event Thursday, adding, “Mayor Parker is happy today.”
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Administration officials touted the program as two-pronged: it’s expected to create pipelines to family-sustaining jobs for people who might not otherwise have qualified for them. And it could eliminate the hundreds of open positions in city government amid a year-long crisis of understaffing.
Dating back to his time as a member of the City Council, Parker has long made it a priority to find ways to ease the way to city jobs. In 2020, she pushed for stricter residency requirements for city workers, effectively dedicating more jobs to Philadelphia residents. The following year, she advocated a change to the city code that eliminated the “rule of two,” which required hiring managers to choose between the two applicants who scored the highest on the exam.
When Parker took office as mayor in January, one of the first executive orders she signed began the process of eliminating college education requirements for some city jobs, part of a larger plan to reshape the way municipal government hires and promotes workers.
On Thursday, students in the first grade of City College gave thanks for municipal employment to Parker. Standing at the podium with his young son in his arms, Nathaniel Caldwell said he is studying information technology with a focus on cyber security.
“This couldn’t have come at a better time for me,” he said. “I was already looking to go back to school and move forward in my career… The only thing that could stop me was me.”