An initiative of the Financial Services Workforce Initiative, whose purpose is:

• To develop current and future workforce needs
• To attract and retain local talent
• To build financial services career awareness within the Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania regions

Target Audience: Diversity and special needs college students (sophomores, juniors and seniors) to develop and retain in the region; Regional and non-traditional students; College bound high school students who plan to attend a two-year community college or a four year college or university.

Target Careers: Financial Services (Accounting, Banking, Finance, Investments, Economics, Actuarial Science and other Business related careers).

In June 2004, twenty-two interns participated in the PRICE pilot program for post-secondary students. Of these twenty-two PRICE interns, eleven (11) or 50% were minorities. The PRICE interns were all from within the southwestern PA region and attended various local and out of region colleges and universities.

The PRICE participating employers for this pilot program included First Commonwealth Bank, Mellon Financial Corporation and Pennsylvania Women Work. During the summer 2004, PRICE interns participated in an Orientation, a PRICE Logo design contest, Keys2Work assessment process, training and development workshops, networking events and community outreach activities. Three teams of PRICE Post-secondary interns presented the results of their research project as to why "Everybody Loves Pittsburgh" at the PRICE Intern Recognition Event at Duquesne University. The purpose of this team project was to provide an opportunity for the PRICE Interns to explore methods of maximizing the impact of Pittsburgh’s many positive attributes. Through the project, the teams examined what is GREAT about Pittsburgh as well as researched problem-solved what would make Pittsburgh better a place to live and work.

A particularly rewarding outcome of our pilot program year was that one minority PRICE Post-secondary intern was offered and accepted a full time position in the Actuarial Department at Mellon Financial and three (3) minority/African American PRICE Post-secondary interns were offered and accepted co-ops, also with Mellon.