Catholic Charities program helps students into telecommunications
Catholic Charities curriculum and training leader Justin Meinert enjoys having students come back and talk to his classes at the Gismondi Job Training Program.
The program, which is led by Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh, aims to help adults build job skills to work in the telecommunications field.
The program is about to start its fifth and sixth cohorts in its second year of operation and is set to expand to Butler County. The Gismondi Job Training Program will be held Sept. 4 at the YWCA Butler. The program runs for three months and has students attend class from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.
The class is capped at 10 students per cohort.
During a recent cohort, Meinert said that having a former student back, who is now working in the field, provided comfort to the other students.
“Three months is a long time to train before you apply for a job,” Meinert said. “When we had a student come back recently, they talked about how when they started at the job they knew how to work with copper cables. It made them feel like a part of a team that when people asked them about copper cable, they were able to talk about it.”
The Gismondi Training Program provides students the opportunities to obtain five in-demand certifications. The skills obtained could help them apply for jobs as a telecommunications technician, low voltage electrician’s assistant, and a security and fire alarm installer.
There also are plenty of opportunities to work in fiber optics and broadband. By attending the class, students learn the skills for fiber optics cable installing, fiber optics splicing, fiber optics production and fiber optics network operating.
Meinert said that students don’t have to be tech-savvy to pick up on the information.
“We’ve had some people come in who were tech savvy and others who are more bare bones, who use their cellphone and computer occasionally,” Meinert said. “But we’re focused more on the infrastructure and the cable set up in the building. We are focused more on tool use.”
Marion Ahlers, the director of marketing and communications for Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh, said that the program was created with the idea of helping people find jobs that can help them earn a living wage.
Many of the graduates of this program can start jobs that earn at least $20 an hour. Ahlers said they have partnered with many local businesses to help students prepare for jobs, including Armstrong Telecommunications.
Armstrong has announced that it will do a broadband expansion into Moniteau and Slippery Rock schools districts, which will start in 2025. Armstrong received a $12.47 million grant from the Broadband Infrastructure program for the two projects.
Ahlers said the training program can help residents find a long-term career.
“This is an opportunity to help people try to figure out how to earn a living wage,” Ahlers said. “There are some people who are trying to make it work with a few part-time jobs, and what they find out is when kids get on board, it won’t work. We want to try and interrupt the cycle of generational poverty and help provide a living wage.”
Meinert said the course provides a lot of information during the three months. It also helps people with resume building so they know how to approach applying for jobs in the field.
“A lot of the feedback I get from the program is that students feel more prepared to go into the workforce,” Meinert said. “With resume building, we help people put the certifications on their resume and have the information on their resume that looks good to employers.”
