WQED Launches Future Jobs 2.0 — Working Today
Future Jobs Workforce Initiative Report Released
PITTSBURGH — Emerging from the pandemic, coupled with a challenging economic climate, has perpetrated a workforce quagmire. Daily headlines tell the tale of a workforce upended — those unemployed and underemployed or and those that have given up and forced to live on the verge of poverty. The ever-changing employment landscape represents both a need and an opportunity.
To that end, WQED Multimedia announced today the launch of the next generation of Future Jobs, its Mid-Atlantic Emmy® Award-winning workforce development initiative. Starting in 2023, the initiative will have a new name, broader focus, more resources and a distribution network for information and opportunities for those seeking employment today.
WQED is not abandoning the next generation, quite the contrary, as WQED seeks to strengthen families, whatever the configuration, through this multi-generation approach. Future Jobs—Working Today will continue its highly-successful youth-focused career exploration outreach to middle and high school students. But for the next three years, the attention will be on those seeking employment today. Whether skilled or unskilled, the need to attain careers and pathways to jobs providing family-sustaining wages will help create economic stability for the Pittsburgh region, especially in underserved neighborhoods.
“WQED is making Future Jobs: Working Today its top corporate priority, as we have an urgency fueled by an obligation to foster a high quality of life for our residents through sustainable employment,” remarked Lilli Mosco, WQED Interim Co-COO. “We heard from our sponsors and partners about the challenges they face finding job candidates. Through WQED’s multi-media approach and as a trusted information source, Future Jobs: Working Today can play a pivotal role in supporting Pittsburgh’s economic competitiveness.”
Plans continue with developing an entire new digital platform, reaching out to national, regional and local partners, community organizations and government officials to identify specific community needs.
One of the touchstones of WQED’s success is community partnerships, and it was those meaningful alliances that helped spark the Future Jobs initiative in 2019, and will continue its momentum into the future. WQED’s Community Advisory Board, which is a cross-section of individual’s from the WQED service area, will play a significant role in the new initiative.
As WQED moves to the next phase of Future Jobs, the organization released its Future Jobs Workforce Initiative Report, detailing the scope of the work and results to date.
Report Highlights include (2019-2022):
Participation: 10,000 Students, 200 Teachers
Content: 8 Future Job Documentaries, 48 High-Demand Career Digital Video, 7 Events (in-person, virtual)
Reach: 480,000 Television Viewers, 52,127 YouTube Views, 31,416 visits to the WQED Website, 1,400 Attended Events
About WQED
WQED was an experiment in educational community-supported television that was the forerunner to PBS. Today, WQED is a multimedia powerhouse that is as much a part of Pittsburgh as the three rivers. WQED is WQED-TV (PBS); WQED World; WQED Create; WQED Showcase; WQED PBS KIDS Channel; Classical WQED-FM 89.3/Pittsburgh; Classical WQEJ-FM 89.7/Johnstown; the Pittsburgh Concert Channel at WQED-HD2 (89.3-2FM) and online; streaming and apps, and WQED Interactive.
WQED is a premier leader in broadcast and digital video production, producing socially relevant, historical, arts, entertainment and educational programming resources. WQED’s Learning Neighborhood model creates an education continuum dedicated to serving our youngest neighbors through Ready To Learn programming, while engaging high school students learning filmmaking and exploring employment opportunities through the WQED Film Academy.