Biden names Philly as 1 of 4 new cities to join White House Workforce Hub initiative

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia will be getting a significant boost to its workforce development efforts .

In New York Thursday, President Joe Biden announced the expansion of Workforce Hubs, a White House effort to train workers for new jobs being created by the Infrastructure Law and other federal programs, from five to nine cities.

In Philadelphia, the Hub will be preparing workers for jobs on bridge construction, sidewalk repair and sewer and water upgrades being funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.

Lily Reynolds of the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure says the city will require contractors on those projects to hire Philadelphia residents, with a special effort to hire from the 19 zip codes where incomes are lowest.

“This preference helps nudge the industry toward a diverse and representative worker population and provides really meaningful careers for trained workers from Philadelphia,” she said.

Reynolds says the city has already been preparing for this new opportunity with programs like Plug-in Philly, which is training workers in partnership with the electricians union, school district, community college and Philadelphia Works, to install electric vehicle chargers .