Oakland Public Works Training Academy

The mission of the Oakland Public Works (OPW) Training Academy is to provide on-the-job training, employability, and job acquisition skills for Oaklanders between 18-30 years of age. The academy provides two important benefits to our community: filling vacancies within the department to enhance service delivery, and providing well-rounded training and support to young adults to help them gain and maintain long-term employment. 

Recruitment focuses on Black and Latinx young adults from East Oakland, Fruitvale, and West Oakland (specifically, zip codes 94621, 94603, 94605, 94601, and 94607) to address critical disparities in employment access as identified by the City of Oakland’s Department of Race and Equity. Individuals who face barriers to employment are encouraged to apply including those who are currently unemployed and/or out of school, in transition from foster care, justice system-involved, affected by a history of mental health or substance abuse issues, or from a low-income household.

The program is designed to meet the following objectives:

• Expose trainees to career opportunities within Oakland Public Works.
• Provide a variety of social, safety, and life-skills trainings to prepare participants to be successful when working individually and as part of a team or crew.
• Provide tailored job acquisition training (for example, resume writing and interviewing skills) to strengthen competitiveness when applying for full-time employment in Oakland Public Works and the City of Oakland at large.
• Place trainees in a full-time, 6 month long position, for firsthand experience performing job duties/tasks, and to learn other skills necessary to apply for the corresponding entry-level position.
• Reduce OPW vacancies with individuals from the local community to better serve those same communities.

The program is designed to accommodate up to 10 trainees per academy and offers participants a competitive wage. Trainees work with one of the three OPW Bureaus listed below. The placement prepares them to apply to an entry level position within that Bureau. Trainees' assignments are based on their career interests, experience, and previous training.

• Bureau of the Environment (BOE) The BOE oversees the maintenance of parks, trees, and city owned landscapes such as plazas, medians, open space, Right-of-Way spaces, illegal dumping, street sweeping, encampments, and litter container services. They manage agreements for curbside solid waste and recycling services, environmental stewardship programs, and run volunteer community clean-up programs such as Adopt-A-Spot.
• Bureau of Maintenance & Internal Services (BMIS) The BMIS is responsible for providing repair and maintenance services for the City's equipment and infrastructure, such as buildings, fences, and structures on City property. This also includes City-owned facilities, sewer and stormwater collection systems, custodial services, and City vehicles.
• Bureau of Administration (BOA) The BOA provides behind-the-scenes operational support to the department by managing budgets, human resources, employee recruitment, safety and training programs, monthly reports, and technology systems.

The OPW Training Academy was developed through grant funding from California Volunteers—Office of the Governor which supports youth workforce jobs. The City of Oakland was awarded $5.9 million for its Oakland Forward program which seeks to increase youth and young adult employment and develop pathways into careers in public service in the areas of climate resilience and public safety.

The Oakland Forward grant was secured by the Oakland Department of Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) and supports programs in three different City departments including the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP) and the Oakland Police Department (OPD), in addition to Oakland Public Works. Oakland City Council approved funding on July 5, 2022. Programs began operations in summer 2022.