The Skills Initiative is an Idea Worth Stealing

Originally published by The Philadelphia Citizen

Cait Garozzo was gobsmacked.

As the executive director of West Philly’s Skills Initiative, Garozzo runs a relatively small, Philly-based workforce training and development program. They’d recently gotten some national buzz — especially after receiving a $4 million grant from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, last year — but for the most part, “our good news does not get shouted as loudly,” Garozzo says.

Yet, there she was, at last month’s Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting in New York City, “sitting in a room with hundreds of people from across the world that I’m in awe of.” Walking through the halls she might have passed California Governor Gavin Newsom, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa, or even the Clintons themselves. Philanthropic, government and nonprofit leaders presented on issues like humanitarian response, human rights, economic development and philanthropy. So many prominent thinkers and doers were there, committing to launch new initiatives and sharing their ideas.

Garozzo belonged there because the Skills Initiative does have an idea worth sharing: 93 percent of their graduates secured jobs after completing training and 83 percent remained a year or more after the program ended. Graduates aren’t just getting jobs, they’re getting good jobs. On average, graduates earn $22.71 per hour, which works out to just over $47,000 per year for a 40 hour work week. Studies have found that 40 percent of graduates from federal workforce training programs make less than $25,000 annually.

At Clinton Global, Garozzo, alongside new partner the nonprofit Accelerator for America, made a commitment to expand the Skills Initiatives model to other communities around the country. They’re going to work with AFA’s network of more than 800 elected officials, and workforce development and economic development leaders across 100 communities to teach them what made the Skills Initiative so successful, with the goal of launching similar programs in at least two other cities.

“This is really deep, meaningful work that people care about all over the world,” Garozzo says. “I always love representing Philly anywhere we go and shouting our good news from the rooftop.”

An idea others want to steal

The idea of helping other cities adopt the Skills Initiative’s approach came to Garozzo when she was a speaker at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s economic mobility summit this past April. Tim Kelly, mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was in the audience, eagerly asking questions and taking notes during her presentation.

After the talk, Garazzo recalls, Kelly told her, “I want the Skills Initiative in Chattanooga” — a tall order for the Skills Initiative’s, “small, but mighty team” of 14. Their model, which works with local employers to train people for jobs that already have openings, requires knowledge of local businesses and a city’s economic ecosystem. You can’t just drop a group of Philadelphians in Chattanooga and expect them to get the same results.

“We aren’t really built for the capacity to become a consultancy and bring that elsewhere,” Garozzo says.

But she really believes in the core of the Skills Initiative’s model — and its results speak for themselves. In fiscal year 2025, they served 305 Philadelphians, increasing their wages, on average, to $22.71 per hour. The program has graduated 1,549 people since 2011 and 89.9 percent found jobs after completing their training program.

Garozzo wanted other cities to experience that same success. Maybe the Skills Initiative team could chat with Chattanooga city leaders on the phone? That’s where serendipity stepped in.

AFA is a “do-tank” that helps mayors and other local leaders implement successful transit, infrastructure, economic, workforce and community development initiatives that have worked for other cities. (AFA partners with The Citizen on our How To Really Run a City podcast.) Anne Bovaird Nevins, AFA’s chief of economic and community impact, had already worked with the Skills Initiative back in 2019 and 2020 when she led the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC). Together, PIDC and the Skills Initiative brought the model to the Navy Yard, to launch training programs for the companies there. When Kelly chatted with the AFA team, they saw an immediate opportunity to tap into their network to help other cities replicate the Skills Initiative’s model.

“Our whole goal is to find those innovative models and solutions that are working in one place in the country, and try to help bring those to other communities where they can have impact,” Bovaird Nevins says.

Why the Skills Initiative works

Part of what makes the Skills Initiative’s model so successful is its dual focus: on the needs of the employer and that of the job seeker. Employers approach the University City District with open positions and the Skills Initiatives creates training programs to upskill workers for those jobs, whether it be direct skills training or soft-skills training to help them prepare for interviews.

The Skills Initiative has a rubric they use to evaluate job quality that considers factors like wages, scheduling consistency and opportunities for career growth and other factors. They want to be sure they’re matching people with quality positions. Job seekers like the model because it helps them get good jobs in their communities and help their neighbors. A worker might complete a phlebotomy training program at CHOP, then see children from their neighborhood come in for bloodwork.

“Often strategies lean heavily on either the employer needs at the expense of a really robust, human-centered strategy for developing the job seekers, or strategies are focused on creating a very warm and inviting place for job seekers that might not be directly connected to a role,” Garozzo says. “We’re really marrying both of those strategies.”

That model has been intrinsic from the beginning. The Skills Initiative is part of University City District, a business improvement district. They initially created the program because they wanted community members to benefit from economic growth that businesses in their neighborhoods were experiencing. The model keeps the Skills Initiative nimble, allowing it to create new programs based on employer needs. For example, in 2020, they quickly got a lab tech training cohort off the ground to meet Penn’s increased need for Covid-19 testing.

“It’s more than just getting one individual or 10 individuals into a job. It’s giving people the opportunity to further contribute to their neighborhood,” Garozzo says.

For AFA, the Skills Initiative’s market driven approach — training people for jobs that already exist in their communities — is part of the appeal. Some jobs programs focus on training people in new skills (think: the many, many coding training programs that exist) that aren’t tied to specific jobs. The focus on working with local employers, too, especially those at major institutions like hospitals and universities is intriguing because it helps keep the program specific to the needs of a particular city or neighborhood.

“When I first started in economic development, back in 2007 it was relatively siloed,” Bovaird Nevins says. “There was not a ton of connectivity between what economic development organizations were doing, and what workforce development organizations were doing.”

In Philly and beyond

As part of the partnership, AFA will act as a connector to help expose leaders in other communities to the Skills Initiative’s model. Then, they’ll help identify local organizations and employers that could work together to create a similar program.

The Skills Initiative will share their experience, but local leaders in each of the communities will build and launch their own programs because mayors and business leaders know more about their community’s particular workforce development challenges.

“The goal here is not for the Skills Initiative itself to expand directly into other markets with their own team,” Bovaird Nevins says. “Other organizations that have the trusted local relationships on the ground could adopt the model with the right coaching and supports.”

One city they think could be a good fit: Philly’s Super Bowl rival Kansas City. AFA has already engaged in some workforce development work and assessments there, partnering with the nonprofit apprenticeship program Heartland Women In Trades.

“I’m excited to get to take and sort of showcase a great model, a great idea, a great program that has its roots in Philadelphia,” Bovaird Nevins says.

Building not just jobs, but careers

The partnership with AFA comes at a time when the Skills Initiative has already been growing. Last year, they received the $4 million grant from Scott to scale their job training initiatives citywide. They’ve focused on creating more middle skills training programs, targeting jobs that require more than a high school diploma, but less than a college degree, and cementing their healthcare industry partnerships.

The biggest proof of their success: their graduates. Last year, they created an alumni advisory council to create mentorship opportunities amongst alums and to uplift some of the Skills Initiative’s success stories.

Laura Bien-Aime is one Skills Initiatives who is involved with the council. She entered the program in 2017 when she trained to be a Patient Sitter at CHOP, working with children and families to reduce anxiety and ensure safety. She had bigger ambitions, however, hoping to one day become a registered nurse. Within a year, she progressed to become a nursing assistant, then studied to become a licensed practical nurse in 2020 and in May 2025 she earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing. The Skills Initiative offered a first step, but they also helped her find scholarships. Now she’s in a masters program focused on nursing.

The program also helped her discover her love of working with children to help them live healthier lives. A year after enrolling in her Skills Initiative training program, Bien-Aime founded the nonprofit Laura’s Children Foundation, which offers health education to children in historically disadvantaged communities. They go into schools and spend between six and eight weeks talking with students about diabetes prevention, high blood pressure prevention, high cholesterol prevention, ways to cope with stress and other topics.

“The Skills Initiative cracked open the door,” she says. “It’s a great stepping stone to get you from where you’re at to the next thing.”