Pittsburgh Promise Scholars Learn Valuable Lessons
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Landing your dream job takes more than just getting a degree or specialized training.
There is a set of skills that are often not taught to college graduates.
Officials with the Pittsburgh Promise are working to teach what their students may not learn in class.
"I think it will give me a lot of opportunities to perhaps get internship and experience and just get out there in the real world," Abedo Sijuwade said.
When the rest of the world is trying to shake off the cold, these college students and recent graduates spend a day getting ready to launch into the next step of their lives.
"Here we are focusing more on the interviewing skills that are required to secure a job, on the soft skills that help you keep the job -- things that are intangible and you may or may not know and may or may not have seen modeled," Pittsburgh Promise Executive Director Saleem Ghubril said.
For Janay Coleman, this day is as simple as one word.
"Encouragement. I believe that they are all ready to face the world, ready to face the world, ready to stay here in Pittsburgh and find great jobs here and to really change the society here," Coleman said.
The focus of the day is teaching Pittsburgh Promise scholars how to hone their interview skills, meet executives and recruiters and is exclusive for them to get an edge on landing jobs and the recruitment process.
"It takes many entry level jobs, many, to get to your dream job, and they may look at our resumes at our bios right now and think 'I'm never going to get there.' We have to tell them it wasn't overnight that we achieved the job that we truly fell fulfilled. There were several building blocks, several entry level jobs that took us to where we are right now," Carolina Beyers said.
While the Pittsburgh Promise helped pay to send them to school, there's an openly stated goal of keeping these bright minds right here near home.
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