Forty years ago, Boston was a divided city, struggling economically and still reeling from
school desegregation. Neighborhoods were pitted against one another, and new office
towers downtown appeared to provide jobs for commuters, not for Boston residents.
Faced with these circumstances, Mayor Kevin White and Boston corporate leaders
imagined a new public-private partnership, the Boston Private Industry Council. The PIC,
as it was known from the beginning, was founded as the city’s business-led workforce
board to oversee federal job training funds, a model soon replicated across the country.
A few years later, the PIC helped broker a school improvement compact among business
leaders, higher education, the Mayor and the BPS to better connect the neighborhoods
with the emerging downtown economy. This new compact launched the PIC’s first private
sector summer jobs campaign. (See the timeline under this flap.)
Today, the PIC serves as Boston’s MassHire Workforce Board and school-to-career
intermediary, in partnership with Mayor Marty Walsh, Governor Charlie Baker, and their
administrations. This 40th anniversary annual report describes the components of the
PIC strategy:
• Career centers matching job seekers with training and employment and meeting the
hiring needs of area employers (p.2)
• Workplace experience and career awareness for high school students through schoolyear
and summer jobs, internships, and related activities (p.4)
• Re-engagement for students who have left school and those who graduate without
adequate employment or further education and training (p.6)
• Postsecondary coaching for those who commute to area colleges (p.8)
• Industry sector collaboratives, in partnership with higher education and nonprofit training
organizations, to imagine better ways to connect with Boston’s diverse talent (p.10)
• Quality research to inform practice and public policy (p.12)