Here’s some great news from University City District’s West Philadelphia Skills Initiative (WPSI), an award-winning workforce development program founded in 2009.

• Philadelphia residents who are interested in becoming a bus operator are welcome to apply for a new job training program with WPSI and SEPTA. The Skills Initiative is recruiting customer-service “superstars” who have had a valid driver’s license for at least the last three years, who have open schedule availability, and who possess an interest in growing a career at SEPTA. 

Training will take place online, and access to a laptop or desktop computer, broadband internet, a webcam, and a word processing program like Microsoft Word or similar are essential to training completion. Testing will be done in-person. Graduates of this program can earn the opportunity to interview for Bus Operator openings with SEPTA.

Interested applicants can visit the new Skills Initiative website to learn more about the program and submit an application. Applications are also available here. Deadline for applications is Tuesday, March 2 at 5 p.m.

• WPSI has recently partnered with Penn Medicine to hire 50 lab assistants for COVID-19 testing in the University City area. The new lab assistants will play a pivotal role in collecting and processing large quantities of testing samples that come from the 4040 Market Street community testing site and several new testing sites throughout the University of Pennsylvania campus.

With the scarcity of new frontline jobs due to the pandemic, Penn Medicine offered new career possibilities to WPSI graduates during difficult economic times. Three cohorts of employees from the WPSI program joined Penn Medicine this past fall. Among them, 93 percent are Black and 90 percent are women.

“Post-pandemic, Penn Medicine will transition the cohorts of lab assistants into other parts of the health system, depending on the employee’s interests and skillsets,” according to Robert Challender, chief operating officer and corporate director of laboratory services for Penn Medicine.