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WQED’s Future Jobs: Careers to Consider

Premieres September 2 at 8pm

August 31, 2021

WQED’s rich history of educational programming, its long-standing partnerships with local schools, as well as community and family-focused learning events are unique in this region. As a result, WQED embarked on a high-profile multimedia initiative called Future Jobs in 2018 that addresses the growing issue of Pittsburgh’s changing workforce needs.

This year, WQED continues its initiative showcasing the region's trending and future career paths with Future Jobs: Careers to Consider, which premieres Thursday, September 2 at 8:00 pm on WQED.

Program Description:

This half-hour program explores a variety of careers that are trending not only in the Pittsburgh region, but across the country. Each segment is designed to give viewers a quick but informational look at each career possibility, noting job duties, salary ranges, educational requirements and more. Highlighted are welding, media art, ironworking, robotics, electrical work, manufacturing, information security, protective coating, additive manufacturing, completions engineering data analytics, direct support, physical therapy, and the PNC Partner Up program.

About Future Jobs

In 2018, WQED launched Future Jobs, a major multiplatform initiative to address the region’s workforce development challenges. Future Jobs was extremely well-received by the community with strong community engagement and critical acclaim including a regional Emmy Award for the outstanding Community Service Initiative in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Future Jobs content, including television programs, a series of digital videos, webinars and online resources, raised awareness about high-demand careers now and in the future, and helped people from all backgrounds to connect with opportunities for training and education to acquire the needed skills. This content aired on WQED TV and was posted online and shared on social media to reach the broadest possible audience.

Additionally, WQED facilitated a series of in-school screening and discussion events for middle- and high-school students. During the 2019-2020 school year, over 4,000 students in our region have participated in Future Jobs events to learn about career readiness, and the demand for this content by school districts continues to be strong. Additional Future Jobs events in the community helped to bring this information to adult job seekers and career changers.

WQED’s second phase of the Future Jobs initiative includes four television programs and a continuation of the digital video series. WQED will also continue its community outreach efforts, including screening and discussion events (virtual or in-school) for students, and additional events (virtual or in-person) through partnership with community organizations such as Catalyst Connections and the Pittsburgh Technology Council.

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 at www.wqed.org/fm; local and national television and radio productions; WQED Interactive (www.wqed.org) and WQED Education (www.wqed.org/edu).

Future Jobs is made possible with major support by:

Builders Guild of Western PA

Aurora

Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh

Society of Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh

Arconic

River Point Technology

Passavant Memorial Homes Family of Services

WesBanco Bank

PJ Dick-Trumbull-Lindy

PA Department of Labor & Industry

United States Steel Corporation

And also by these generous funders:

Hunter Associates

Consensus Technologies

Deloitte

Thiel College

Triangle Tech

Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics

NECA – IBEW Local 5 LMCC

Carlow University

Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters

West Liberty University

Seton Hill University

Builders Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh

Fayette County Career & Technical Institute

Achieva

Turner Construction Company

Columbia Gas and NiSource Charitable Foundation

Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation

Ellwood Group

Dollar Bank

Shippensburg University

Community College of Beaver County

New Horizons

Mascaro Construction Company, LP

University of Pittsburgh at Titusville   

Academy Pittsburgh

Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry

Pittsburgh Technical College

Berner International

Western Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Payroll Association

Turbine LMS

MDI General Contracting

Conturo Prototyping