A new trade school tucked inside Esperanza’s North Philadelphia campus is offering something rare in today’s economy: completely free training in welding, HVAC, plumbing, and facility maintenance, with no experience required. Esperanza Tec Centro Philadelphia opened its doors to its first students in July, housed in a more than 14,000-square-foot facility at the corner of North Fifth and West Bristol streets in Hunting Park.
The center is a three-way partnership between Esperanza, the Tec Centro Workforce Network, and Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, according to Esperanza. It marks the seventh site in the statewide Tec Centro network and is also Thaddeus Stevens College’s first outpost in Philadelphia, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Lancaster-based college, whose main campus runs two-year associate’s tracks in trades and technology, is sending faculty and curriculum to Philadelphia because its main campus programs are at capacity and its short-term programs carry waiting lists, the Inquirer reports.
Four Tracks, Twelve Seats Each
Programs are open to Philadelphia-area adults 18 and older, and no prior training is required, per Esperanza’s announcement. The four tracks — metals fabrication and welding technology, commercial-industrial HVAC, commercial-industrial plumbing, and facility maintenance technology — each hold room for 12 students per six-month session, according to the Inquirer’s reporting. The current cohort, which started in July, is scheduled to wrap up in December.
Each program runs roughly 400 hours of classroom and hands-on instruction over six months, and it is completely free to eligible participants who are accepted, per Impacto. The outlet notes English as a Second Language courses and GED preparation are also available for participants who need additional support, and the Inquirer adds that the program is aimed at people who are currently unemployed or underemployed. Thaddeus Stevens College says participants also have access to adult basic education and workforce readiness support alongside the technical instruction, and program officials want to eventually add evening or weekend instruction, the Inquirer reports.
A $4 Million Building, a $2 Million Annual Budget
Standing up the center wasn’t cheap. Construction of the training facility — which includes a computer lab, welding stations, and a drafting room — cost $4 million, funded with state dollars through the Tec Centro Workforce Network, according to the Inquirer. The program’s first-year operating costs run roughly $2 million, per the Inquirer’s reporting, which attributes that figure to Esperanza’s Danny Cortés…